A Kano fire brand female politician for decades, Hajiya Najatu Muhammad has called it quits with the Nigerian type of politics. In a letter to the national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) where she hung until today, January 21, Najatu said that after much reflection and careful consideration, she had decided to part ways with party politics. “I have come to the realization that my values and beliefs no longer align with party politics. “Our political parties have no ideological differences and are simply robes that politicians wear to serve their personal needs and interests at any given time. “As a result of which we see politicians changing from one robe to another whenever it suites them.
“What is important at this point in time is the individual wearing the robe and not the robe itself.” Najatu however pledged her commitment to supporting individuals that are truly interested in addressing the root causes of our challenges as a nation. She stressed that for her to remain true to such commitment, she would be willing to take bold and decisive steps.
“Quitting party politics at this point in time is one of such steps. “We all recognize that Nigeria is facing many challenges, including insecurity, poverty, inequality, and lack of access to basic services. “Such challenges require the consolidated efforts of competent and patriotic leadership across every level of governance. “Nigerians must be aware of the severity of their situation after the dismal failures of leadership the country has experienced over the years. “Nigerians must be aware of the consequences of their decisions and their choices. “Therefore, restricting ones choice to a single political party will be detrimental to the development of our country and our democracy.” She said that as a Nigerian fighting for a better Nigeria, she would remain deeply committed to the struggle for a more just and equitable society. She believed that all Nigerians deserve the opportunity to live a life of dignity, security and opportunity. According to Najatu, Nigeria has a long history of struggle to build a better future for all its citizens, saying that despite many challenges, “we remain resolute to overcome them and create a more prosperous, stable, and just society. “I remain committed to protecting the rights and freedoms of all citizens, and promoting a culture of tolerance and respect. “I believe that diversity is one of our greatest strengths and that by working together, we can build a stronger, more united country.”
The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), made up of the governors of the 36 States, have set up a 6-member committee to work with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) towards addressing anomalies in the country’s monetary management and financial system. The committee arose from the first meeting of the governors in 2023 which was held in Abuja on Thursday, January 19. The 6-member committee is to be Chaired by the Governor of Anambra State, Professor Charles Soludo, with the Governors of Akwa Ibom, Ogun, Borno, Plateau and Jigawa States as members. A communiqué from the meeting said that the committee will engage the CBN in addressing anomalies in the country’s monetary management and financial system. The Governors’ Forum, chaired by the Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, received a briefing from the Governor of CBN, Godwin Emefiele on the Naira redesign, its economic and security implications including the new withdrawal policy. Governors stressed that they were not opposed to the objectives of the Naira redesign policy. “However, we observe that there are huge challenges that remain problematic to the Nigerian populace. “In the circumstances, Governors expressed the need for the CBN to consider the peculiarities of States, especially as they pertain to financial inclusion and under-served locations.” They resolved to, among others, work closely with the CBN leadership to ameliorate areas that require policy variation particularly the poorest households, the vulnerable in society and several other citizens of the country that are excluded. The Governors also agreed to collaborate with the CBN and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) in advancing genuine objectives within the confines of the laws. They however queried the recent NFIU Advisory and Guidelines on cash transactions, saying that such guidelines were outside the NFIU’s legal remit and mandate.
Nigeria is set to conduct its national population census between March 29 and April 1 this year, 2023.
This was announced yesterday, January 20 by the Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), Nasir Isa Kwarra, while answering reporters’ questions shortly after a private audience with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential villa.
Nasir Kwarra said that the exercise will be conducted with the aid of available technology, saying that such technology would make it difficult for anyone to manipulate the exercise.
He said that some of the cutting-edge technology the Commission will use including Global Positioning System (GPS) and satellite images.
He said that every building in the country has already been coded for the exercise, saying that the demarcation of enumeration areas has also been completed.
Speaking against the backdrop of the worrisome security situation in parts of the country, he expressed the hoped that the exercise will be conducted smoothly in the areas affected.
“By March 29 to April 2, our staff will be in the field enumerating people,” said Kwarra.
The National Peace Commission (NPC) has called on the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congess (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, that of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar and others to stop the open insults and verbal attacks they have launched on themselves in the ongoing campaigns for the February elections.
The NPC, yesterday January 20, returned the presidential candidates and their political parties to another round-table peace talk during which they were made to sign a fresh commitment to the peace pact they earlier signed ahead of the polls.
The co-chairman of the peace committee and former head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, at the round-table talk, advised the presidential candidates to stop overheating the polity and causing tension in the country.
General Abdulsalami expressed concern that Nigerians are disturbed over the likely outcome of the forthcoming 2023 general elections due to their fear that the polls might be inconclusive and marred by violence.
He urged the candidates to stick to issues-based campaigns and refrain from mudslinging and other inciting comments that heat up the polity.
The warning from the former head of state came amid the lingering backlash and lash back among presidential candidates, particularly the flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart, Atiku Abubakar.
The two presidential hopefuls have been at loggerheads since the commencement of the campaigns for the 2023 polls, attacking themselves with incisive vituperations in the ongoing credibility battle.
At the meeting with the candidates and national chairmen of their parties, Abdulsalami said Nigerians must be free to be able to elect the leaders of their choice.
“Our intention is to hear from the presidential aspirants themselves and see how we can rally all our people to ensure that all citizens are able to elect the leaders of their choice.
“It is impossible to have all contestants into one room and so, we hope that whatever we discuss here affects all contestants in these elections.
“On the 29th September 2022, the NPC invited all the presidential candidates and they all signed a Peace Accord at the International Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja, but the verbal war between the presidential candidates has been heating up the polity.
“You may also recall that we placed advertisements in all major newspapers and the social media calling on all presidential candidates to be mindful of the concerns of Nigerians, on such issues are the need to use temperate language, avoid raising the tone of violence and to conduct themselves in a manner that does not undermine the electoral process.”
General Abdulsalami said that the meeting was to listen to the accusations and counter accusations.
“We are not here to trade blame but to raise issues and concerns so that the forum can explore the best means of resolving the concerns.
“I appeal to you all to be moderate in your language, show respect to the views and concerns of one another and listen to the concerns expressed. We are not here to find out who is wrong, but what is wrong and to see how to correct it.
“We are pleased that there are measurable improvements, and that INEC is assuring us that it has resolved some of the areas that have often caused violence.
“The security agencies have also continued to give us assurances. Our hope is that you can raise your areas of concerns and let us see what can be done to instill confidence in this process,” he said.
General Abdulsalami also called on Nigerians to take the forthcoming general elections seriously said it would be the only way they can contribute to its success.
“I want to appeal to all Nigerians to appreciate the seriousness and significance of these elections. We have gone through many difficulties and survived them.
“The purpose of this initiative by the peace committee is to build up the confidence of our people in the electoral process and to ensure that we do all that is possible to ensure that these very crucial elections are successful.”
Meanwhile, the chief spokesperson of the APC presidential campaign council, Festus Keyamo (SAN), yesterday filed a suit before a Federal High Court in Abuja seeking to compel the country’s anti-graft agencies to prosecute the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
The APC presidential campaign council had on Monday asked law enforcement agencies to arrest Atiku following an audio recording released by his former aide, Michael Achimugu, in which the former vice president is alleged to have explained how shell organisations were set up to divert public funds.
In a letter addressed to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and the Conduct of Conduct Bureau (CCB), on Monday, Keyamo who is also the minister of state for Labour and Productivity gave the agencies 72 hours to begin prosecution of Abubakar.
Keyamo also alleged that Atiku is in violation of section 18(2) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and section 96(1) of the Penal Code.
In the suit with number FHC/ABJ/CS/84/2023, Keyamo is praying the court for an order compelling Atiku “to submit himself to the CCB, ICPC and EFCC for thorough investigation”.
He told the court that Atiku needs to be investigated over his alleged involvement “with information available to him in respect of a certain bank account belonging to a company named Marine Float and other accounts of two undisclosed companies, which information he disclosed to a certain close aide of his called Michael Achimugu, as to how the said accounts were used as a ‘Special Purpose Vehicles’ to secretly divert and misappropriate public funds between 1999 and 2007 when the 1st defendant (Atiku) served as vice president of Nigeria”.
Accordingly, he is praying the court for the anti-graft agencies “to invite and/or arrest, investigate and (if found wanting) prosecute the 1st defendant in respect of information available to the 1st defendant in respect of a certain bank account belonging to a company named Marine Float and other accounts of two undisclosed companies, which information he disclosed to a certain close aide of his called Michael Achimugu, as to how the said accounts were used as ‘special purpose vehicles’ to secretly divert and misappropriate public funds between 1999 and 2007 when the 1st defendant served as vice president of Nigeria”.
He also asked for a mandatory order compelling Atiku to make himself available to the anti-graft agencies “to aid and investigate the former Vice President on information available to him in respect of a certain bank account belonging to a company named Marine Float and other accounts of two undisclosed companies, which information he disclosed to a certain close aide of his called Michael Achimugu, as to how the said accounts were used as a “Special Purpose Vehicles” to secretly divert and misappropriate public funds between 1999 and 2007 when the 1st Defendant served as Vice President of Nigeria.”
Keyamo said Atiku colluded to fleece the country of public funds using what he termed as “Special Purpose Vehicles” (SPVs).
Six pupils, between the ages of seven and eight, in the Local Government Education Authority (LGEA) Primary School in Alwaza, Doma Local Government Area of Nasarawa State were kidnapped today, Janaury 20, even as the State Police Command said they have launched a search them.
Alwaza community is less than 30 minutes from Lafia, the state capital.
Report said that three motorcyclists, with two people each, arrived in the community and took away seven children on their way to school.
It was gathered the gunmen dropped one of the children because there was no space to convey him on the motorcycles.
Reacting to the incidence, the spokesperson for the state Police Command, Rahman Nansel, said that a team of policemen, military and local vigilantes were on the trail of the abductors in a bid to rescue the pupils.
Nansel appealed to people in the state to avail the security formations of any information that could help them apprehend the abductors and rescue the children.
Meanwhile, the state Deputy Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Akabe, visited the school today and sympathized with the community and informed them of the government’s determination to rescue the children.
Friday’s abduction may reignite the fears of kidnapping and abductions by gunmen in schools among Nigerian parents, teachers and school managers.
Since Boko Haram kidnapped 276 school girls on April 14, 2014 at the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, abductions of pupils and students have spiked in Nigeria.
Several mass abductions and kidnappings have followed in different parts of the country, especially in the North.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has threatened to impose one million naira fine daily on any commercial bank that fails to pick up the new naira notes for distribution.
A Deputy Director at CBN, Adeleke Adelokun, who was on a sensitization mission to Ayegbaju International Market in Osogbo, the Osun state capital, today, January 20, also threatened to penalize commercial banks that fail to comply with the directive of loading the redesigned naira notes in their ATMs.
Adelokun said that the apex bank had printed enough naira notes but observed that commercial banks are not collecting them.
“As at today, CBN has printed enough new naira notes of N200, N500 and N1,000,” NAN quoted the CBN official as saying.
“But, what we discovered was that most of the banks that are supposed to collect the new notes have not collected them. So, we have put a sanction on the banks.
“Any bank that fails to collect the new notes from CBN will pay N1 million as sanction per box, per day and the amount they are to pay now will depend on the number of days they have not collected the notes.
“We also mandated the banks to put new naira notes in their ATMs all over Nigeria so that Nigerians will have access to the new naira notes.”
Adelokun said that the CBN team from Abuja, which had been in Osun since Wednesday, had been going round commercial banks in the state, meeting with their officials to ensure that they were paying out the new naira notes to customers.
He said that the team was at Ayegbaju market to sensitise traders on the newly-redesigned naira notes, the eNaira app, as well as how they can subscribe to it for their business transactions.
This was even as the CBN branch controller in Osun, Daphne Madojemu, said that currency management had faced several challenges, hence the need for the redesign of the naira notes.
Madojemu explained that the exercise would bring the hoarded currency into the banking system, thereby making monetary policy more effective.
“The currency redesign would assist in the fight against corruption as the exercise would rein in the higher denomination used for corruption, and the movement of such funds from the banking system could be tracked easily.”
PDP National Chairman, Ayu | Photo credit: Premium Times
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has suspended some of its members over allegations of anti-party activities.
Those were suspended, according to a statement today, January 20, by the party’s spokesman, Debo Ologunagba are Senator Chimaroke Nnamani (Enugu State) and Chief Chris Ogbu (Imo State) with effect from today, today, Friday, January 20, 2023.
Others are members in Ekiti State, including Ayeni Funso -(Ekiti North), Ajijola Lateef Oladimeji -(Ekiti Central), Emiola Adenike Jennifer -(Ekiti South II), Ajayi Babatunde Samuel -(Ekiti North II), Olayinka James Olalere -(Ekiti Central), Akerele Oluyinka -(Ekiti North I), Fayose Oluwajomiloju John -(Ekiti Central I).
The party said that their suspension was effected after a very extensive review and consideration of the affairs of the Party in the country and in accordance to the provisions of its Constitution (as amended in 2017).
The party asked all leaders, critical stakeholders and teeming members of the Party across the country to remain united and focused on its mission to Rescue, Rebuild and Redirect the nation from misrule.
No fewer than 154 global technology companies have sacked over 55,000 workers within this January 2023 as a result of redundancies in the sector.
According to data compiled by an online expert, Layoffs.fyi website, the global tech layoffs has almost doubled from just over 25,000, showing that the data suggest 2023 is on pace to surpass 2022 for global tech redundancies.
It said that the 154 tech companies laying off 55,324 employees in the first few weeks of 2023 surpassed the last year where 1,024 tech companies laid off 154,336 employees.
Layoffs.fyi was set up by San Francisco-based startup founder Roger Lee to track layoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lee is the co-founder of Human Interest, a digital 401(k) provider for small businesses and Comprehensive, an employee compensation platform.
Major U.S. tech companies are firmly in the layoffs spotlight.
This week, Google parent, Alphabet Inc. confirmed plans to lay off about 12,000 workers globally and Intel Corp. said it is slashing hundreds of jobs in Silicon Valley.
The Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), has given its Chairman, Lauretta Onochie, the go ahead to cut financial waste and implement other measures aimed at ensuring the smooth running of the Commission. The Board gave its nod at the end of its meeting after an exhaustive deliberation on the proposal tabled before it by the Chairman. This development is coming against the backdrop of report by an online newspaper platform, Sahara Reporter, alleging that there were moves by members of the Board to oppose Onochie’s plan to sanitize the NDDC. The report, according to some stakeholders, shows attempts by some vested interests to return to old ways in the NDDC.
It also shows some forces trying to gang up against the Chairman of the board in her desire to ensure that wastes in the system are reduced. A member of the Board described the story as “a tissue of lies” designed to sow a seed of discord among members of the Board who are united in their resolve to make a difference in the Niger Delta. According to the member who preferred not to be identified: “we have always reported the various submissions by the Board members on their being united to work for the Niger Delta. “The truth is that the Chairman insisted on a drastic reduction in the number of aides attached to Board members, in line with extant rules and regulations of the Federal Government. “That this falsehood is being perpetrated by Sahara Reporters is a ploy to misinform the public in a bid to distract the Board. “We assure that the Board will neither be distracted nor divided in its resolve to do things differently and make a difference in the Niger Delta.” Commenting on the allegation that Onochie asked for 18 Special Assistants, the source said that the story was one of the attempts to blackmail the Board Chairman. “The office of the secretary to the Federal government (SGF), has set out guidelines for the number of aides the chairman, managing director and other members of the board can have.” Maintaining that the guidelines have been put in place and, approved before the board came into being, the source insisted that the new Chairperson has brought hope to the Commission. “With her insistence that things cannot be done in old ways and expecting new result, she has put her foot on ground and ready to turn the NDDC around,” said the Board member. Reacting to the development, Onochie said, in a post on her verified Twitter handle, @Laurestar, said: “On NDDC, I stand, with the laws of our land.” “I will continue to insist that the NDDC Board, follow the laws that set it up. Our Plans are to serve5# The PeopleOfNigerDelta. Its a Board, not a Sole Administration. We are doing things differently. We will continue to do that. “God Bless the Niger Delta. God bless Nigeria.”
Asiya Ganduje, a daughter to Kano State Governor is seeking a divorce from her husband, Inuwa Uba, after 16-year with four children.
She told an Upper Shari’a Court in Kano today, January 19 that she is ready to return the N50,000 dowry her husband paid on her.
At the resumed sitting, the Plaintiff Counsel, Ibrahim Aliyu-Nassarawa, told the court that his client insists on returning the N50,000 bride price received from her husband in exchange for divorce.
“Every woman who is living under strange condition has a right under Islamic law to approach the court and seek for her marriage to be dissolved with the condition to return the dowry.
“My client is ready to return the N50,000 bride price received from her husband in exchange for divorce.”
Aliyu-Nassarawa said his client is not willing to relinquish her rights and will not abide by conditions set by the respondent.
“The conditions are subject matter of dispute that should be subjected to another suit before another court.”
Earlier, Counsel to the respondent, Mr Umar I. Umar, said the issue is beyond the payment of N50,000 dowry.
“My client has two conditions regarding some of his belongings, before coming to the issue of divorce.
“The respondent has four kids with the plaintiff, but all efforts to reconcile them proved abortive.
“The plaintiff should return all his credentials, house certificates, cars and relinquish her rights in their joint rice company.”
The presiding judge, Malam Halliru Abdullahi, after listening to the submission of both parties, adjourned the matter until Feb. 2 for judgement.
NAN reports that the court had on Jan. 12, dismissed the preliminary objection filed by counsel to the respondent, challenging the jurisdiction of the court to hear the case.
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Six pupils, between the ages of seven and eight, in the Local Government Education Authority (LGEA) Primary School in Alwaza, Doma Local Government Area of Nasarawa State were kidnapped today, Janaury 20, even as the State Police Command said they have launched a search them.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has threatened to impose one million naira fine daily on any commercial bank that fails to pick up the new naira notes for distribution.
No fewer than 154 global technology companies have sacked over 55,000 workers within this January 2023 as a result of redundancies in the sector.
