The new Sultan of Sokoto, Saad Abubakar, also the spiritual leader of Nigeria’s Muslim, sits on his throne during his coronation ceremony in Sokoto, Northern Nigeria, March 3, 2007. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde (NIGERIA) – RTR1N1ZM
President Muhammadu Buhari is celebrating the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar 111, as he marks his 66th birthday today, August 24.
In a statement by the special adviser to the President on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, the President acknowledged the Sultan for being steadfast in championing the cause of peace and unity in the country through regular counselling the institutions, professionals and public servants to abide by acceptable standards.
He acknowledged the patriotic role the Sultan has been playing, especially in always advocating for a better Nigeria.
He also confirmed that Sultan Sa’ad has continued to work with religious, traditional and political leaders to guide followers on making the right choices that safeguard and ensure a brighter future.
Buhari acknowledges the maturity and selflessness of Sultan of Sokoto, whom he described as “the revered leader of Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), since he ascended the throne in 2006.
The President prayed for the wellbeing of the spiritual leader and his family.
Enraged by the killing of an Islamic Scholar by a soldier whom he assisted with his car, President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the army high command to flush out all soldiers with criminal tendencies to avoid its image being dragged into the mud.
“This incident is capable of making our fellow citizens to be fearful of assisting soldiers, thereby destroying the bond of trust between our military and the civilians.
“I call on the military authorities to punish the perpetrators of this heinous crime without delay, and flush out other elements with such criminal tendencies.”
A statement today, August 23 by the senior special assistant on media and publicity, Garba Shehu quoted the President as having strongly condemned what he calls “the unprovoked and cold-blooded murder of a Yobe State-based Islamic cleric Sheikh Goni Aisami, by a callous soldier he had offered a lift as confirmed by the Police.
“This barbaric murder of a compassionate man by a soldier he had assisted has no place in our training as soldiers, and it negates the entire ethos of military life which is anchored on discipline and respect for the sanctity of innocent lives.”
According to the President, “as the Commander-in-Chief, I am personally outraged by this criminal and wicked act by a law enforcement official trained to protect life.
“By our training, we are guided by a code of conduct that frowns on this kind of reckless and criminal act. It is not in our character and training to put innocent citizens in harm’s way. Of course, the action of this soldier is an isolated incident involving an individual, but it is capable of staining the collective image of our military.”
He condoled with Yobe State Government, people of the State and family of the victim of this tragedy.
The Chairman of Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Walid Jibrin, has made it clear that though he will remain in the party till he die, but that the way the north is holding all top positions in the party is not fair to other parts of the country.
In a statement today, August 23, Senator Jibrin insisted that only the North cannot produce the presidential candidate, National Chairman and BoT Chairman.
“I still maintain my stand on that statement PDP is a democratic and National party that cater for all Nigerians it’s not sectional but loved by all Nigerians.
“As a PDP BoT Chairman I must say the truth and nothing but the truth no matter any criticism. I don’t fear anyone but God and true agenda of our party. I will add that I stand strongly on my toes. I have been a true member of PDP since its inception in 1998.”
Jibrin added, “I will remain in PDP until my death. I still maintain that the BoT is eagerly waiting for the report of the Reconciliation committee headed by Governor of Adamawa state and Professor Jerry Gana. Thereafter, the BoT will thoroughly discuss it and inform the public accordingly no more, no less.”
According to the elder statesman, the BoT will continue to discuss with all aggrieved party members, including those in states, Zones, and nationally.
He called on members of the PDP to concentrate more on how to win all elective positions in 2023.
Presently, the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar and Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, have been involved in a cold war after the presidential primaries.
Governor Wike insisted that the party’s National Chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, should resign as part of the conditions to accept the reconciliation moves by the leaders of the party.
A 25-year-old man, Elisha Tari, has confessed that he killed his two sons (3 and 5 years old respectively) because they were shouting fire, fire on me when he asked them to say God.
“When I asked them to say “God” they, instead, said‘fire and kept saying fire, fire, instead of God.’ I became irritated and provoked by their action as a result which I picked up stones and hit them on their heads to death.”
Tari, who was arrested by the Adamawa State Police Command for killing two of his children, confessed: “I smoke indian hemp, drink alcohol and inhale snuff. I do not in any way take tramol or any other hard drugs.”
He also claimed that he has a psychological problem, and was once tied with chains because of a mental disorder.
Tari’s trouble, according to source, might have started when his wife and the mother of the deceased children left him over two months ago, and all efforts to make her return proved abortive.
According to the source, the suspected killer went to his in-laws on several occasions to persuade their daughter to return home, but his in-laws denied him access to his wife and instead kept on deceiving him.
It was gathered that the deceased children had met their father on that fateful day while he was cooking and he asked them when their mother is returning home.
Tari is an indigene of Himike village in Michika Local Government Area of the State.
He was paraded by the police yesterday, August 22 before newsmen who subjected him to questions. He is a traditional musician.
If someone had landed in Nigeria from Mars on Monday and read treads on Twitter Nigeria, he would have thought Senator Kashim Shettima was one tasteless, uneducated Nigerian. But the man so derisively targeted by a section of Twittersphere was nothing of such.
He was a victim of the Twitter herd, people who behave like the herdsman’s cows, without any reflection and tweet what others in their group are tweeting, tweets dripping with hate and insults, that ought not to be on the social media platform were the Twitter police alive to their responsibility.
Shettima, two term governor of Borno, a serving senator and vice presidential candidate of the APC became the butt of derisive jokes that Monday, because he featured as a panelist at the NBA Conference in Lagos. He came to represent Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
He was the first to take the podium, which was provided after he had started speaking. He jettisoned a prepared speech on the topic and rather chose to speak on the track records of Tinubu as governor of Lagos and his record as governor of Borno state.
His delivery, done extemporaneously, was top notch. As many unbiased listeners said, he was the starboy at the segment of the conference. He spoke eloquently with conviction. He quoted figures and he said he and Tinubu will replicate their joint records at the centre from 29 May 2023.
Senator Shettima outshone other speakers. He was better than Obi, who as usual reeled out fake statistics about oil production and theft, unemployment, declared Nigeria a failed state but failed to offer solutions. Atiku who also came tried to make a political capital out of ASUU strike by advocating the transfer of Federal universities to the states. Afterall, he said some of the universities had regional history. He was referring to Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Obafemi Awolowo University in Ife and Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Nsukka. Hours later Atiku walked back the suggestion and denied ever saying so.
Shettima spoke about how Tinubu and his successors grew the economy of Lagos from N600m revenue base to N51billion today, to become Africa’s fourth biggest economy. He spoke about their readiness to deploy his experience in fighting insurgents to deal with problems of banditry and kidnapping today.
Not a rabble rouser, Shettima’s submission appealed more to the rational audience in the hall of Eko Atlantic and Suites. Lawyer and activist Ayo Obe, who listened to the panelists of politicians, tweeted: “Going by their performance in answering questions in their panel discussion at #NBAAGC2022, when it comes to citing figures and data, and giving examples from other countries, I think that @PeterObi has met his match in @KashimSM.
Clearly, some sections of people in the hall were not interested in Shettima’s speech. They were focussed on the mundane: his attire. But they got it all wrong. If they had not been limited by their own bushman’s narrow view, they would have known that it was pointless ridiculing the senator with his suit and tie. They were the people that needed further exposure on the correctness of dress modes.
A lot of people may still be wondering why Tinubu picked Shettima as running mate and not somebody else. One of the reasons was what the whole world saw on display Monday.
Shettima is highly cerebral. Give Shettima the option to pick a monetary or book prize, he will opt for books. He loves books, his friends testify, such that any time he travels out of the country, he returns with book gifts. Shettima is not a dude, he is rather a deep thinker, indeed a big thinker.
This is one reason Borno people will not forget him in a hurry. Despite the Boko Haram crisis that began in 2009, two years before he became governor , Shettima left a legacy of big schools, better than some of the Nigerian universities. He built housing estates and hospitals. He rebuilt over 50 churches destroyed by the insurgents. He invested in agriculture and left a successor that has continued to build on his legacy, just like Tinubu’s successors have been doing in Lagos.
Shettima is also cosmopolitan. He was educated in Maiduguri and Ibadan. He studied Agricultural Economics first at UNIMAID. He did his NYSC in Calabar. He then went for a masters degree at UI. He started his working career in 1991 as a lecturer in Agricultural Economics at the University of Maiduguri, before crossing to banking.
His first port of call was Commercial Bank of Africa as an Agricultural Economist at its Ikeja Office, Lagos State between 1993 and 1997. He left as deputy manager to join African International Bank Limited, Kaduna Branch (1997–2001).
From AIB, Shettima in 2001 joined Zenith Bank as Deputy Manager/Branch Head in the Maiduguri Office in 2001. Within six years, he rose to become the General Manager, one of the fastest career progression by any staff in Nigeria’s biggest bank.
But the pull of politics was irresistible for the banker. In 2007, he took up political appointment as commissioner for finance and economic development in his home state of Borno.
He was so good that within the four years he served under Governor Ali Modu Sheriff, he was moved from ministry to ministry. His last place was the ministry of local government and chieftaincy affairs.
The left-handed Shettima became the governor of Borno state by accident in 2011. This happened after insurgents killed the original candidate, Engineer Modu Fannami Gubio.
File photo: Wole Soyinka | PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Images)
Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has said that he does not care if Nigeria’s next president, vice-president, Senate President and speaker of the House of Representatives are all from the same village and religion.
Soyinka, who spoke on Channels Television’s NewsNight, a pre-recorded interview, aired, said: “I don’t give a damn if the president, the vice-President, the speaker, etc. all come from the same village, they have the same religion, they belong to the same tribe.”
Soyinka was commenting on the controversy that has trailed the Muslim-Muslim All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential ticket.
Professor Soyinka said there is no problem “if, however, it is transparently, absolutely, unarguable that is a kind of genius breed that has been donated to the nation and to the world. “As long as the capability of the individuals who are into governance is proven, and it is quite clear that there is no alternative, that is my position.”
The 88-year-old playwright stressed that the same faith ticket won’t be a problem in a “normal society” and that Nigeria hasn’t attained such a “norm.”
“Now, we are talking about a society which is normal, which institutions are normal…Is Nigeria normal?” he asked.
According to him, the campaigners for a same-faith ticket should be “very sensitive to the very peculiar circumstances of Nigeria” and explore alternatives that have been working for the country.
Soyinka’s comments came months after APC presidential candidate and former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, had announced ex-governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, as his running mate. Tinubu and Shettima are Muslims, a development that has continued to attract criticisms from the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN); the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria; Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah amongst others.
“For the benefit of the ones who have forgotten, the Guardian newspaper has in the past, been worshipped as the flagship of the nation’s press; the one that had won every “Newspaper of the Year” awards. Now, they have sadly fallen from the height it once occupied as a medium that sparked intellectual thought and discourse for a fiddler of poorly scripted invective and ad hominem.”
The Nigeria’s Presidency, which presented this position today, August 23, emphasized that the Guardian newspaper, has since taken up the role of regular antagonist and political opponent of the President and his party, APC.”
Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on media and publicity, Garba Shehu, who authored the statement, said that the Guardian newspaper has now “surpassed itself with its latest call for the impeachment of the President.
“The newspaper editors clearly do not like the way the President is running the country and therefore they believe he should be impeached. “They debase both the political discourse of our nation and public understanding of the law and constitution by doing so.”
Garba Shehu educated the Guardian newspaper by saying that impeachment is a process undertaken after high crimes and misdemeanours have been proven and that it is “not a process undertaken against a leader whose politics you do not agree with, or who you personally dislike.”
He wondered that impeachment has become a newly added partisan weapon in the arsenal being wielded by those who have established a track record of hatred towards the President and an attempt to remove from office, one who is democratically elected by the people.
“In a recent editorial published in the Washington Times, the American political leader and commentator Saul Anuzis stated: “There are exceptional circumstances when presidents and other office holders deserved to be impeached… slam-dunk cases of malfeasance in the highest office.”
“Referencing attempts to call an impeachment vote in the Nigerian Senate a “headline-grabbing stunt,” Anuzis observed “It is no coincidence this occurs just months before Nigeria’s next presidential election.”
“The fact is, it should be for presidents to govern and for opposition politicians and the media to hold them to account. “The circumstances of his election in 2015 – the first time a sitting president had been defeated in a re-election attempt and the first time any party save the PDP had won the presidency – was a vast shock to Nigeria’s political and sections of the media establishments. As far as they were concerned, it was not how things were meant to be.
“So, from day one, they set about attacking this president more than any other in Nigeria’s history. “The fact they could not defeat him at the ballot box when he was re-elected in 2019 – and now with his APC party very likely to retain the presidency despite all their best efforts – they now turn to all and any means, no matter the political, legal, or constitutional consequences to bring him down.
“The Guardian newspaper may never be friend or ally of President Buhari, but they should know better than to support this “headline-grabbing stunt.”
The Directorate of Personnel Management of the Kogi State High Court is set to shed-off what the State High Court’s Council of Judges’ subcommittee described as illegally employed workers as a way of repositioning the judiciary.
Acting Chief Judge of the State, Justice Josiah Joe Majebi confirmed that the committee’s recommendations would be implemented without delay.
Receiving the report, the Acting Chief Judge referred to part of the report which indicates that names of some persons on the payroll of the High Court were not found on the court’s nominal roll (register). The committee stated that the numbers of employed staff within the period of January 2021 to June 2022, falls within the period of its terms of reference.
“After a careful check of the names of newly employed staff from January 2021 to June 2022, the staff disposition list and payroll, it was discovered that some of the names on the payroll could not be found on the staff disposition list of the courts and other departments.
“Therefore, it is an indication that though their names are on the payroll but they do not have duty stations and do not work anywhere in the Inspectorate offices.”
The committee, which has Justice Muhammed Etsu Umar as its Chairman, while submitting its report, recommended that immediate and urgent action be taken to correct the anomaly of having some staff in the payroll without duty stations.
“It is our recommendation that it is an abnormality for a staff to be on payroll without duty station. Such situation should be immediately corrected by termination of employment of such persons affected.”
It also went further to recommend that “henceforth, employment (by the institution) should be highly regulated to the needs of the judiciary establishment and based on budgetary provisions and availability of vacancies.”
The four-man committee, which also comprised a Deputy Director in the Directorate, Mr. Paul B. Egwu, as member, also has the Acting DPM/DCR of the High Court, Ezema A. Beatrice Esq., as its Secretary.
According to the Chairman of the committee, Hon. Justice Umar, who had earlier appreciated the Chief Judge for deploying his experience in carving out a vision that will strengthen and restore the integrity of the judiciary, he said as supervisors of the Directorate of Personnel Management, the committee ensured that they aligned with the CJ’s vision and in doing that a lot of things were unraveled.
He said since their focus was from January 2021 to June 2022, they relied upon the report of the Committee on Staff Verification of the High Court of Justice submitted in December, 2020, to appraise the entire workforce of the High Court shortly after the unfortunate demise of the late Chief Judge, Hon. Justice Nasiru Ajanah, which “changed everything in the system”.
He said subsequent administrations, not minding the finances of the judiciary, threw the organization into what led to agitations for implementation of promotions and minimum wage by judiciary workers.
He said the committee realized that the agitations were not unconnected with the “astronomical rise.
“If doing the right thing has any negative effect on some individuals, such action cannot be faulted so long as the decision and action is beneficial to the system and it is sustainable for both the staff of the organization and the overall administration of justice itself.
“We looked at the objectives of the committee which was to meet and achieve a better standard for all employee’s services under the High Court of Justice. To determine the number of newly employed staff from January 2021 to June 2022 and to examine the list of staff from January 2021 to June 2022 on the staff disposition list of the nine Inspectorate Zones of Kogi State vis-à-vis those on the pay roll.
“We discovered that we have about 40% increase of seven hundred and six (706) staff within the period under review. With the discovery of this astronomical rise in our number of staff within this period, we decided to examine the rise by juxtaposing it with the finances and infrastructure of the judiciary, with a view to its sustainability and there were names found on the payroll but not found in the staff register.
“This contains thirteen names, which when added to the 255 gives us 268 non-existing staff on the payroll but are not traceable to any duty station.”
While appreciating the committee members for a job well done, the Chief Judge, Justice Majebi said the committee’s assignment continues as it was a permanent committee which would be functional throughout his tenure in office as the Chief Judge of the State.
Commending the State’s Judges on their new supervisory roles over Directorates of the High Court, Justice Majebi noted that the High Court of Justice of Kogi State was defined in the past by the quality of her Judges who are blessed with wisdom, knowledge, competence, calmness and discipline.
A sociocultural group, De Noble Club10, Nigeria, has rallied traditional rulers, women and youth groups as well as other Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) for a one-day stakeholders interactive session on how to maintain and promote peace and unity in the community and Nigeria at large. A statement today, August 22 by the chairman of the Planing Committee of the interactive session, Engr. Shuaibu Salami said that the specific item on the table would be the sensitisation of the Ebira people on the forthcoming population census in the country. Engr. Salami said that the interactive session, scheduled for August 27 at Afims Hotels Ltd. Oro, Okene at 10:00am “is expected to attract traditional rulers, including a high-powered delegation from the Ohinoyi of Ebiraland, district and ward heads, such heads of other groups as Ebira Peoples Association (EPA), Front for Ebira Solidarity (FES), Ebira Youth Congress (EYC) and others, including community leaders. “The interactive session will discuss the upcoming head count, 2023 general elections and maintenance of peace for harmonious existence.” The planing committee chairman hinted that a resource person has been invited to speak on the issues. Engr. Shuaibu Salami called on all patriotic Ani-Ebira to avail themselves of this rare opportunity to be sensitised for better and rewarding outings.
The Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) has advised Nigerians not reach conclusions on the methods being adopted for elections on the basis of media headlines. INEC accused some media of having misinterpreted the recent short interview granted to a national newspaper on the procedure for result management during elections. In a statement today, August 21, the National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee of the Commission, Festus Okoye, said that the interpretation given to the contents of the press interview on result management procedure to the effect that the Commission has jettisoned the electronic transmission of result and reverted to the manual process is not correct. “For clarity, the procedure for result transmission remains the same as in recent Governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun States. There will be no change in all future elections, including the 2023 General Election. “We wish to reassure Nigerians that the electronic transmission of result has come to stay. It adds to the credibility and transparency of the process when citizens follow polling unit level results on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal on real-time on Election Day. There will be no change or deviation in subsequent elections. “The entire gamut of result management is provided for in Sections 60, 62 and 64 of the Electoral Act 2022. In line with the provision of the law, the Commission, in April this year, released a detailed clarification of the procedure for transmission, collation and declaration of result which was shared with all stakeholders and uploaded to our website. “We appeal to all Nigerians to avail themselves of the provisions of the Electoral Act and the Commission’s detailed explanation of the procedure.”
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Enraged by the killing of an Islamic Scholar by a soldier whom he assisted with his car, President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the army high command to flush out all soldiers with criminal tendencies to avoid its image being dragged into the mud.
A 25-year-old man, Elisha Tari, has confessed that he killed his two sons (3 and 5 years old respectively) because they were shouting fire, fire on me when he asked them to say God.
The Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) has advised Nigerians not reach conclusions on the methods being adopted for elections on the basis of media headlines.
Kashim Shettima: The Starboy Of NBA Show, By Bayo Onanuga
He was a victim of the Twitter herd, people who behave like the herdsman’s cows, without any reflection and tweet what others in their group are tweeting, tweets dripping with hate and insults, that ought not to be on the social media platform were the Twitter police alive to their responsibility.
Shettima, two term governor of Borno, a serving senator and vice presidential candidate of the APC became the butt of derisive jokes that Monday, because he featured as a panelist at the NBA Conference in Lagos. He came to represent Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
He was the first to take the podium, which was provided after he had started speaking. He jettisoned a prepared speech on the topic and rather chose to speak on the track records of Tinubu as governor of Lagos and his record as governor of Borno state.
His delivery, done extemporaneously, was top notch. As many unbiased listeners said, he was the starboy at the segment of the conference. He spoke eloquently with conviction. He quoted figures and he said he and Tinubu will replicate their joint records at the centre from 29 May 2023.
Senator Shettima outshone other speakers. He was better than Obi, who as usual reeled out fake statistics about oil production and theft, unemployment, declared Nigeria a failed state but failed to offer solutions. Atiku who also came tried to make a political capital out of ASUU strike by advocating the transfer of Federal universities to the states. Afterall, he said some of the universities had regional history. He was referring to Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Obafemi Awolowo University in Ife and Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Nsukka. Hours later Atiku walked back the suggestion and denied ever saying so.
Shettima spoke about how Tinubu and his successors grew the economy of Lagos from N600m revenue base to N51billion today, to become Africa’s fourth biggest economy. He spoke about their readiness to deploy his experience in fighting insurgents to deal with problems of banditry and kidnapping today.
Not a rabble rouser, Shettima’s submission appealed more to the rational audience in the hall of Eko Atlantic and Suites. Lawyer and activist Ayo Obe, who listened to the panelists of politicians, tweeted: “Going by their performance in answering questions in their panel discussion at #NBAAGC2022, when it comes to citing figures and data, and giving examples from other countries, I think that @PeterObi has met his match in @KashimSM.
Clearly, some sections of people in the hall were not interested in Shettima’s speech. They were focussed on the mundane: his attire. But they got it all wrong. If they had not been limited by their own bushman’s narrow view, they would have known that it was pointless ridiculing the senator with his suit and tie. They were the people that needed further exposure on the correctness of dress modes.
A lot of people may still be wondering why Tinubu picked Shettima as running mate and not somebody else. One of the reasons was what the whole world saw on display Monday.
Shettima is highly cerebral. Give Shettima the option to pick a monetary or book prize, he will opt for books. He loves books, his friends testify, such that any time he travels out of the country, he returns with book gifts. Shettima is not a dude, he is rather a deep thinker, indeed a big thinker.
This is one reason Borno people will not forget him in a hurry. Despite the Boko Haram crisis that began in 2009, two years before he became governor , Shettima left a legacy of big schools, better than some of the Nigerian universities. He built housing estates and hospitals. He rebuilt over 50 churches destroyed by the insurgents. He invested in agriculture and left a successor that has continued to build on his legacy, just like Tinubu’s successors have been doing in Lagos.
Shettima is also cosmopolitan. He was educated in Maiduguri and Ibadan. He studied Agricultural Economics first at UNIMAID. He did his NYSC in Calabar. He then went for a masters degree at UI. He started his working career in 1991 as a lecturer in Agricultural Economics at the University of Maiduguri, before crossing to banking.
His first port of call was Commercial Bank of Africa as an Agricultural Economist at its Ikeja Office, Lagos State between 1993 and 1997. He left as deputy manager to join African International Bank Limited, Kaduna Branch (1997–2001).
From AIB, Shettima in 2001 joined Zenith Bank as Deputy Manager/Branch Head in the Maiduguri Office in 2001. Within six years, he rose to become the General Manager, one of the fastest career progression by any staff in Nigeria’s biggest bank.
But the pull of politics was irresistible for the banker. In 2007, he took up political appointment as commissioner for finance and economic development in his home state of Borno.
He was so good that within the four years he served under Governor Ali Modu Sheriff, he was moved from ministry to ministry. His last place was the ministry of local government and chieftaincy affairs.
The left-handed Shettima became the governor of Borno state by accident in 2011. This happened after insurgents killed the original candidate, Engineer Modu Fannami Gubio.
The rest is now history.