The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has made it clear that the type of freedom media enjoys in Nigeria can be measured from the point of view of the fact that some media practitioners can and do abuse the President and nothing happens to them.
“This must be one of the very few countries in the world where a section of the media can refuse to recognize popular sovereignty, or how does one describe a situation in which a President who was duly elected by millions of Nigeria is willfully stripped of that title, ‘President’, and then cheekily cloaked in the garb of a dictator by playing up his military title? Despite that abuse of press freedom, those doing that have continued to practice their profession without hindrance.
“Ours must also be one of the few countries in the world where a reputable medium will report fake news and, when called out, will not retract or apologize.”
The minister spoke today, April 12 when the executive members of the Nigerian chapter of the International Press Institute (IPI) paid him a courtesy visit in his office, Abuja. The executive members were led by the President of IPI Nigeria, Muskilu Mojeed.
Lai Mohammed, who stressed that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is not a threat to the media, and it is not about to stifle press freedom or deny anyone his or her constitutionally-guaranteed rights, asked the media to always stick to their constitutional watchdog role, and not to constitute themselves into a political opposition.
He also charged IPI Nigeria to take seriously the issues of ethics, credibility and fake news, among others, in relation to the practice of journalism in the country.
”For example, on the issue of ethics, is it part of the ethics of journalism for a media organization to function like an opposition party, seeing nothing good in the government of the day and only reporting bad news?”
He called for a sustained engagement between the government and the IPI in order to share views on how to enhance the practice of journalism in the country.
This was even as the President of IPI Nigeria, Mojeed, said that the visit was part of a series of engagements with governmental and non-governmental organizations to enhance independent journalism and operating environment for journalists and media organizations in Nigeria.
Both medical personnel and patients at the Kuje General Hospital in Abuja are jubilating as the General Manager of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Health Management Board (HMB), Dr. Kawu swung into action to address issues that gave rise to bad environment around the hospital. Information reaching Greenbarge Reporters today, April 12, said that following our report yesterday, Dr. Kawu drove straight to the hospital and ordered that things should be immediately put in proper shape. It was gathered that the GM has directed that the borehole in the hospital should be rehabilitated immediately. “We had light (electricity) throughout the night for the first time in three weeks,” an excited lab attendant hailed. Yesterday, we reported that the hospital had for a long time been without electricity and water. We also reported that patients have been resorting to buy water from water vendors outside for the medical personnel to use during treatments.
Former General Manager of the Federal Capital Territory Health Management Board, Dr. Frank Alu has attributed the bad shape into which Kuje General Hospital has been thrown to the collapse of everything in Nigeria. Reacting to a story carried on Greenbarge Reporters online newspaper platform today, April 11, Dr. Alu said: “Am sure this is as a result of the collapse of everything in the country…. national grid collapse; no diesel to power the generators; no water from Water board & no power to pump water from the boreholes! “Those complaining about welfare are actually not complaining about salaries & allowances (because these are paid regularly as & when due) but the uncomfortable working conditions brought about by all these NATIONAL COLLAPSE. God help us.” When a suggestion was made that the hospital ought to be temporary closed, to avoid possible infections of even the medical personnel, the former General Manager asked: “what do you do if there is no diesel to run generators & pump water that water board? And AEDC refuse to provide electricity? “I wanted you to see the perspective of the whole problem when I mentioned “total collapse of the National grid.
“Maybe we should temporarily close Nigeria then.”
We carried a story yesterday that Kuje general hospital now operates without electricity for days and water. That patients now buy water from water vendors for medical attention.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has granted MTN Nigeria license to operate as Momo Payment Service Bank Limited (Momo PSB).
In a statement by the MTN Secretary, Uro Ukpanah, reads in part: “MTN Nigeria Communications PIc (MTN Nigeria) announces the receipt of a letter dated 8 April 2022 from the CBN addressed to Momo PSB conveying final approval to commence operations.”
However, the statement failed to announce the date of commencement of the bank.
In 2021, the CBN granted approval in principle to MTN and Airtel to operate a payment service bank (PSB) across the country, aimed at further driving financial inclusion in Nigeria.
The approval in principle for both telecoms operators came two years after CBN granted the same category of licence to 9mobile, Globacom and another operator.
Since 2012, an often-stated goal of the CBN has been to deepen financial inclusion in the country.
A significant reason for the optimism shown is the potential of telcos to fast-track the CBN’s financial inclusion goal. This is mainly due to their comprehensive coverage of the country, especially in rural areas that house most of the unbanked population.
With the infrastructural cost of setting up branches and security, banks are not opening branches in new locations and, in some cases, are shutting down operations.
“He allowed me access to everything I needed and to my wife and visitors. The only thing he did not allow was my wife sleeping with me in my cell.”
These were the words of Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, after his release from detention in Cotonou, Benin Republic. He had been in detention since July last year.
In a BBC interview today, April 11, Igboho said that contrary to rumours of a horrid time behind bars, he had a splendid time and was well treated.
“President Talon ensured that I was Ok in prison. He gave me full protection. He instructed doctors to be at my beck and call.
He said it was a policeman who came to inform him about his full release on 7 April.
He had to procure the service of an interpreter, who told him the President of the Republic has released him.
Igboho thanked numerous people, his wife, Yoruba at home and in diaspora, Yoruba and Egun Obas in Benin, his Benin lawyer Adebayo Salami, Professor Akintoye and Professor Wale Adeniran.
He said contrary to some insinuations that Talon would release him to Nigeria, he said there was nothing like that.
Against his anxiety, he said he kept getting assurances from Benin officials to ‘calm down’.
“They told me at every turn to relax. That what they were doing was in my best interest as the sharks from Nigeria were circling around to pick him”.
On his next plans, Igboho who looked radiant in his purple French suit, said he would soon return to Ibadan and Nigeria.
On return, he will demand the payment from the Federal Government of N20 billion awarded to him by the court, following the destruction of his house by DSS officials.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has asked Nigerians to join him in building the kind of a nation that is the dream of everyone.
Osinbajo, who formally declared for the Presidency today, April 11, under the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the 2023 elections approaches said: “We will be working together to establish, by the grace of God, the Nigeria of our dreams in a few short years. We will build on the foundation laid by our predecessors. We will need to move, with much speed, intentionality, and perseverance, towards the vision of a prosperous, stable, and secure nation.”
Read the full text of his declaration:
Dear Nigerians, for the past seven years, I have served as Vice President under a true Nigerian patriot, a servant of the nation in war and peace, and a man of integrity, President Muhammadu Buhari. We have, together, worked through some of the most difficult times in the history of our nation, but we have remained focused on securing the country, providing infrastructure and growing our economy. As stipulated by the Nigerian Constitution, our tenure will end next year. In this period of seven years, I have served the government in several capacities, and I have, at the direction of Mr. President, represented our country in sensitive high-level international engagements. I have been to practically all local governments in Nigeria. I have been in markets, factories, schools, and farms. I have been in agricultural, mining and oil-producing communities in the Delta, in Kebbi, Enugu, Borno; Rivers, Plateau and Ondo; and in all other States of the federation, listening to the diverse experiences and yearnings of our people. I have visited our gallant troops in the North East and our brothers and sisters in the IDP camps. I have felt the pain and anguish of victims of violent conflicts, terrorist attacks, flooding, fire and other disasters. I have been in the homes of many ordinary Nigerians in various parts of the country. I have sat with our techpreneurs in Lagos, Edo, and Kaduna, with our Nollywood and Kannywood actors; with our musicians from Lagos, Onitsha and Kano. And I have spoken to small and large businesses. I stood where they stood and sat where they sat. I know their hopes, aspirations and fears; and I believe that in those hopes and aspirations are the seeds for the great Nigeria that we all desire. I believe that the very reason why the Almighty God gave me these experiences, these insights, and these opportunities, is that they must be put to the use of our country and its great people. This is why I am today, with utmost humility, formally declaring my intention to run for the Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, on the platform of our great party, the All Progressives Congress, APC. If by the grace of God and the will of the people, I am given the opportunity, then I believe that first, we must complete what we have started, radically transforming our security and intelligence architecture; completing the reform of our justice system focusing on adequate remuneration and welfare of judicial personnel, ensuring justice for all and the observance of rule of law, rapidly advancing our infrastructure development, especially power, roads, railways and broadband connectivity. Providing an excellent environment for businesses to thrive; taking the agriculture revolution to the next level especially mechanization and developing the farm to table value chain. Making sure that the government, its agencies and regulators serve the business community, creating a tech economy that will provide jobs for millions, enhancing our Social Investment Programmes to a full-scale social welfare scheme, completing the promise of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty within this decade. Completing the task of ensuring that all Nigerians, male and female, attend school, reforming our educational system for relevance to the challenges of this century, completing the task of universal health coverage for all and strengthening the capacity of States and Local Governments to deliver on their respective mandates. Above all, front and centre of our efforts will be the provision of jobs and opportunities for our young people. I now most solemnly and respectfully seek the support of fellow Nigerians everywhere in this land, and the diaspora, young and old, male and female, in the great and exciting journey that we have ahead of us. I seek your own support. We will be working together to establish, by the grace of God, the Nigeria of our dreams in a few short years. We will build on the foundation laid by our predecessors. We will need to move, with much speed, intentionality, and perseverance, towards the vision of a prosperous, stable, and secure nation. I am convinced beyond doubt that we have the creativity, the courage, the talent, and the resources to be the foremost black nation on earth. Let us now birth the expectations of greatness conceived generations before us. Let us build a Nigeria where the man from Nnewi sees the man in Gusau as his brother, where the woman in Warri sees the woman in Jalingo as her sister, where the love of our nation burns alike in the hearts of boys and girls from Gboko to Yenogoa. Where everywhere in this land is home for everyone, where our diversities, tribes and faiths unite, rather than divide us. Let our tribes become one tribe; the Nigerian tribe, where all are treated fairly, justly and with respect. Where all are given equal access to the abundant opportunities that God has bestowed on this nation. May God bless and keep our Republic and her great people. Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, GCON Vice President, Federal Republic of Nigeria Monday, April 11th, 2022.
All is not well at the General hospital in Kuje area council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja as the hospital, for a couple of weeks now, has no electricity and water. Information reaching us at Greenbarge Reporters said that medical personnel, including doctors, nurses, laboratory personnel now attend to patients without water to clean up. Even the patients too have no water to take care of essential needs and some of them are resorting to engaging water vendors to buy water in jerricans from outside the hospital premises.
“We are seriously facing general infections and other outbreaks as a result of unclean and smelly bodies and environment,” a laboratory attendant lamented. It was learnt that the last time the hospital enjoyed electricity was the middle of March this year, and that the small generating plant is put on only when surgery is being carried out in the theatre. It was learnt that once it is the night, the hospital is thrown into total darkness with staff and patients resorting to using local torchlight. Efforts by our reporter to talk to the Medical Director of the hospital, Dr. Udofiah Paskal failed because he was said to have traveled out of Abuja to attend a Conference somewhere. Top officers would not speak to newsman, though they were mumbling complaints about the poor condition of the hospital.
One of the medical officers was overheard saying that the situation is quite unfortunate, and asked: “what exactly is happening. We held a session of meeting with MD (Medical Director) of the hospital nearly three weeks ago and we could not reach a reasonable conclusion. It’s obvious we were just called out to be informed of management intention and not to proffer solutions to the menace of some ugly trend we are faced with in the hospital.” This was even as another top officer complained bitterly about the poor condition of the hospital, “where we attend to about 150 Antenatal patients every week? Where we perform surgery on daily bases without minding where to keep the patients even when there are no bed spaces? In the same hospital where they can discharge two day post operative patients or transfer a post operative woman and her baby to female or male ward in order to perform another surgery not minding the wellbeing of the staffs and patients. Can someone just ask me where all these money are entering? Nobody cares about our wellbeing, all they care about is doing surgeries and attending to multitudes Antenatal cases. Even all the sisters hospital in the FCT don’t have the numbers of Antenatal patients we have. Are we meant to be suffering on duty? Working in an unconducive environment and expecting the best.” “Fellow colleagues, let’s come together and fight for our right. Enough of all these please.”
First Bank of Nigeria can no longer pretend against the biting economic situation in the country as it announced reduction in operation hours at most of its branches nationwide.
In a statement made available on its official website today, April 10, the bank said that the new development will take from Monday April 11.
“We have revised our banking hours across all our locations. The revised opening and closing hours will be effective from Monday, 11 April 2022.”
The bank said that while some of its branches will maintain the status quo, other branches will function between the hours of 8:00 am and 3:00 pm., 8:00 am and 2:00 pm, 8:00 am and 1:00 pm and 10:00 am and 3:00 pm accordingly.
Though the bank did not state the reason for the action, it is believed that it took the decision to cushion the effect of the increasing cost of diesel with which it powers many of its branches.
The development also comes in the wake of the incessant national grid collapse that has over time left the country in darkness, forcing organizations to heavily rely on diesel for their operations.
In March, the pump price of diesel hit a record high of N800 per litre, with the new price showing a significant increase from N225 per litre sold in January 2021.
Mostly used by large and medium sized businesses to run their daily operations, the price of diesel, which is largely unregulated, has surged by over 113% in the last 14 months.
King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) has distributed 770 Ramadan food baskets in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, benefiting 4,620 people.
In a Tweet today, April 10, the Saudi authorities said that the food baskets represent the framework of Ramadan “Eta’am” initiative, which aims to distribute around 157,000 food baskets weighing more than 8,000 tons in 19 countries.
The authorities said that the gesture is part of the relief and humanitarian efforts being implemented by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, represented by KSrelief, during the month of Ramadan.
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Musa Bello has held an emergency security meeting with the heads of the various security agencies across the Territory over the rising cases of kidnapping, banditry and other violent crimes in the nation’s capital.
At the meeting today, April 10, the minister charged the security agencies to work in synergy to mitigate the seeming increase in criminal activities in the Territory.
This was eve as the FCT Police Commissioner Babaji Sunday said that the Police command has already put in place measures to stem the tide of criminality in the nation’s capital and will also evolve better strategies to combat crime in the FCT.
“We were summoned, all the security heads in the FCT for an emergency meeting where we deliberated a lot on the spate of kidnappings and banditry at the suburbs of the FCT…and we going to improve on our synergy and further strategize on what we have discussed. We have assured the house that they will see changes.”
The Police Commissioner also spoke on the need for residents of the Territory to provide actionable intelligence to security agencies in their battle against criminality in the FCT.
“You know we cannot be everywhere and like the popular saying, security is everybody’s business. We expect the residents to always be security conscious, give us actionable intelligence which we will act upon.”
He called on residents to form neighborhood watches within estates and local communities to minimize the activities of criminals in those locations, saying that actions from such neighborhood watches made up of credible members of the community will assist greatly in slowing down the actions of criminals.
He also advised commuters to go to recognized motor parks within the city to board vehicles saying that boarding unregistered commercial vehicles exposes them to dangers in such unregistered vehicles in crimes known as “one chance.”
Also speaking, the Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Security, Ambassador Salihu Mohammed said that the Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DRTS) was also working hard to clamp down on unregistered commercial vehicles used for the crime of “one chance”.
“Directorate of Road Transport is doing a lot on the issue of “one chance”. We know the profile of “one chance” vehicles, most of them are not registered or they use tinted glasses”. He called on commuters to avoid such vehicles”.
The meeting was attended by the Minister of State, Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, the Permanent Secretary, Olusade Adesola, the police AIG in charge of Zone 7, Mohammed Ndatsu Aliyu the Commander, Guards Brigade, Brigadier Genenera M. T Usman, the Commandant of NSCDC FCT Command, Dr. Peter Maigari and other security and senior officials of the Administration.
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