Atiku Begs US To Lift Ban On Immigrant Visa Restrictions On Nigeria

February 1, 2020

Presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the 2019 election, Atiku Abubakar has appealed to the United States of America to unban the immigrant visa ban on Nigeria among other countries.

In a statement today, February 1, Atiku who said that he received the US message with sadness, gave reasons why such policy should be rescinded.

He stressed that the ban does not take into account the pro-American sentiments of the Nigerian public and the solidarity previous Nigerian administrations have had with the United States.

“I urge the government of President Donald Trump to consider the history of US-Nigerian relationships. Nigeria was one of the few African nations that joined the US led coalition during Operation Desert Storm in 1990-1991, when the United States championed the liberation of Kuwait.

“The Trump administration may also consider the pivotal role Nigeria, in partnership with the US, played in bringing peace to Liberia, an American sphere of influence, that now enjoys democracy because Nigerian blood and money paved the way for peace in that nation.

“Nigeria has also consistently voted in support of the United States and her allies at the United Nations and other multi-lateral world bodies. This is even as we are perhaps the biggest trading partner that the United States has in Africa, even where we had alternatives.

“Nigerians love the United States and have been a major force for the positive development of that great nation: 77 per cent of all Black doctors in the United States are Nigerians. Nigerians are also the most educated immigrant community in America BAR NONE. Surely, the US stands to benefit if it allows open borders with a country like Nigeria that is able to provide skilled, hardworking and dedicated personnel in a two-way traffic.

“The current Nigerian administration may have its deficiencies and deep faults, but the Nigeria people ought not to be punished for their inefficiencies.”

Atiku, who is Nigeria’s former Vice President, called on President Trump to consider adopting measures that individually target those in government who have failed in their duties, rather than target the entire Nigerian population.

If Unemployed Nigerians Were To Form A Country, It Would Be 2nd Largest In Africa – Osinbajo

Editorial staff

February 1, 2020

“There are 90 million Nigerians under the age of 30 who require education, jobs, healthcare and social infrastructure.

“To put this figure in perspective, if this population were imagined as a country of its own, it would be Africa’s second most populous nation.”

These were the views of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, in a lecture he delivered today, February 1 at the National Defence College, Course .

Professor Osinbajo said that Nigeria is currently the 7^th most populous nation in the world with an estimated population of over 200 million people, adding that in 30 years, “we will be the world’s third most populous country. After China and India. Nigeria is also a young country.”

He said that the main policy challenge which will shape the national security calculus both now and in the future is that of creating social and economic opportunity on a scale that not only matches the population growth rate, but also the aspirations of the youth.

Saying that the sole objective of man is to live, the Vice President said: “to live, he needs food, shelter, and clothing. To do so, he must have the means to earn enough. Where the means are unavailable, his natural instinct to survive brings about a desperation, an alienation from society which makes him potentially a risk to the security of the community, as he must then device ways to survive or to react against a system that he feels dehumanizes him/her by depriving him/her of a means of livelihood.
“This is why the presence of a large young unemployed working age population is a threat to national security. The correlation between high levels of unemployment, poverty, crime and conflict has been exhaustively documented.

“In the context of a large multiethnic and multi-religious polity, the availability of a young population that is not productively engaged provides fodder for extremists, demagogues and a host of hostile non-state actors.
“So, it is clear that our current security challenges are both a cause and consequence of socio-economic conditions. I say a cause, not the only cause. Improving human capital development, especially education, and providing more opportunities for earning a living, will reduce the numbers of young persons available for recruitment into the ranks of the Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists in the North East, and the bandits and other criminals around the country.”

Professor Osinbajo stressed however that the insurgency, banditry and other crimes are also harmful to economic activity. He noted that agricultural productivity in the North East and even parts of the North West and North Central have been hampered by terrorism and banditry.

“If you take a look at some of the figures, you’d see in those places, the production levels they recorded before insurgency and after insurgency. This has led to a situation where many are out of work.”

He argued that that unemployment is both a cause and consequence of poverty, adding: “the central question for us as a government is how are we addressing the challenges of creating wealth and opportunities? How are we addressing the problems of poverty and unemployment?”

Nigeria Govt Sets Up Committee On US Immigrant Visa Suspension

Editorial staff

February 1, 2020

Nigeria government has set up a committee to look into the immigrant visa suspension slammed on the country by the government of the United States of America.

A statement today, February 1, by the special adviser to the President on media and publicity, Femi Adesina confirmed that President Muhammadu Buhari established the committee in reaction to the US immigrant visa suspension which was announced yesterday, January 31.

He said that the Presidential committee is being Chaired by the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola.

The committee, according to Adesina, is expected to study and address the updated U.S. requirements.

“The committee will work with the U.S Government, INTERPOL and other stakeholders to ensure all updates are properly implemented.”

The U.S Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had yesterday, announced temporary travel restrictions on six countries including Nigeria.

For Nigeria, the restriction is the suspension of the issuance of “immigrant visas” to Nigerian passport holders only.

This suspension shall come into effect on 21st February 2020.

It was confirmed that the suspension does not apply to other U.S visas such as those for official, business, tourism and student travel.

The DHS had said that the suspension of “immigrant visas” became necessary following a review and update of the methodology (performance metrics) adopted by the U.S Government to assess compliance of certain security criteria by foreign governments.

This resulted in certain enhancements on how information is shared between Nigeria and the U.S.

The statement from Adesina said that Nigeria remains committed to maintaining productive relations with the United States and its international allies, especially on matters of global security.

US Imposes Travel Restrictions On Nigerians

Greenbarge Reporters

January 31, 2020

The United States has announced its long awaited travel restrictions on Nigerians. The travel restrictions also affect five other countries.

They are People from Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Eritrea, Sudan and Tanzania. They will now be blocked from obtaining certain types of visas though they will still be able to visit the US.

An official said the new measures were the result of failures by the six countries to meet US security and information-sharing standards.

“These countries, for the most part, want to be helpful but for a variety of different reasons simply failed to meet those minimum requirements that we laid out,” acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told reporters on Friday.

He said officials would work with the countries on bolstering their security requirements to help them get off the list.

The US said it would suspend the issuance of visas that can lead to permanent residency for nationals of Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar and Nigeria.

Of the new nationalities facing visa restrictions, Nigerians account for the most immigration to the US.

The US State Department issued about 7,900 immigrant visas to Nigerians in fiscal year 2018, which began in October 2017.

President Donald Trump first introduced a travel ban in 2017. It currently closes US borders to citizens from seven countries, most with Muslim majorities.

Source: BBC.

Aisha Buhari Acknowledges Trail Blazing Roles Of Late Maryam Babangida

Editorial staff

January 31, 2020

Aisha Buhari , wife of President Muhammadu Buhari and Nigeria’s First Lady, has acknowledged the trail blazing roles played by late Maryam Babangida, wife of the former Nigeria’s military President, retired General Ibrahim Babangida and First Lady.

Aisha commended the late First Lady for her particular efforts in the establishment and running of her Better Life Programme for Rural Women.

At an organized event in Abuja, the nation’s capital today, January 31, to mark the 10th anniversary of her death, Aisha Buhari admitted that late Maryam Babangida’s Better Life for Rural Women, served to awaken the consciousness of women.

Aisha Buhari also commended late Maryam Babangida for initiating the National Women Commission as the first institutionalized machinery for women development in the country, which led to the concept of women in development becoming a permanent feature in development planning.

She added that all first ladies that came after her initiated programmes in order to add value to the work of their husbands.

On the Future Assured programme, which she initiated, Aisha Buhari said that it focuses on the challenges of women as captured by the various development goals, including health and well-being of women and children, empowerment of women and youth, equitable quality education for women and girls, as well as protection of women’s rights.

She expressed concerns on the reoccurring challenges of gender-based violence and drug abuse in the Nigerian society and called for concerted effort to find solutions to end the menace.

Muslims Will Make My Cabinet, Imo Gov, Uzodinma, Announces

January 31, 2020

The governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma has given a hint that when he constitutes his cabinet shortly, Muslims will be part of it.

He said: “when I announce my cabinet, you will find that some Muslims will make my cabinet, so the issue of national unity and national integration is uppermost in my mind.”

Governor Uzodinma, who was at the presidential villa, Abuja where he was formally presented to President Muhammadu Buhari by the chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, said that making Muslims commissioners in his government is another way “of ensuring that we are all safe.

“Don’t forget I represent a constituency that comprises Muslim and Christians, so the Muslims in Imo state are my friends and we have been working with them for the past eight years in the senate.”

The governor, in answering reporters’ questions said that the issue of food security is very important to his government, saying that he had directed the permanent secretary in the ministry of agriculture to come up with blueprint on agriculture.

“Before I got into

Imo state, they have already passed the budget which has their own priorities and programmes. Of course, most of them are not consistent with the programmes of my own political party on what I think would be better for our state. So, we are now identifying, for instance, the areas we can grow rice, areas we can farm other produce.”

Governor Uzodinma said that the national policies on agriculture are being collated and that there is already a technical committee in that respect.

“You know my deputy governor is former Vice chancellor, University of Agriculture, Umudike, Umohia. So he is also an agriculturist. He is chairing a committee to come up with a full programme for agriculture to ensure food security for our people.”

The governor said that he understood the challenges in Imo State, saying that even before now, only few days ago when he got to Imo, he discovered that salaries were not being paid in full.

“The reason being that the money coming from Abuja, the federation account is not sufficient. “What I did was to cut down the running cost and forfeited the security vote donated to the governor. I made up the money and we were able to pay salaries 100 percent to all the civil servants. I also directed that the local government funds be sent straight to the local government until such a time the state is ready to release 10 percent of their IGR (Internally Generated Revenue) to the local government then we can begin to do the business of JAC – Joint Allocation Committee.”

Senator Uzodinma said that for 12 years, no governor visited the civil service secretariat, but that he was there two days ago and water has been been available to the secretariat for the past nine years.

“Two days after my visit, water is running there now: they have been connected back to electricity and the generators are being worked on now.

“So, my mandate is about the people and my government will just be about the people and by the grace of God, I will not disappoint their expectations. I am sure they will see good governance from a man with experience, working in consultations with political stakeholders in the state. I think we can do it differently and the narrative will be acceptable to the people.”

He appealed to Imo people to join hands to build a very strong democracy where equity, justice and fair play will be the order of the day.

He said that having campaigned as a candidate of APC, he had his manifesto built on three Rs – Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Recovery.

“You will agree with me that with what I have just said happened two days ago, is part of the recovery. We are also trying to design an implementation plan for all those promises we made. In less than three, four days, I will bring out my implementation plan with timelines, God willing, with appropriate funding we will follow that implementation plan judiciously and I am sure the Imo people will be better for it and I will bring prosperity to the people.”

The governor promised to quickly address the problem of insecurity, adding that his government would take courageous and bold decision to ensure that every citizen would have a sense of security.

“If that is addressed, then we will now begin to address the infrastructural gaps.

“When you are talking about priorities areas – education, agriculture these are priority areas. “Then government has no business in business, we will try to introduce PPP – Public Private Partnership, bring private sector investors to also help in growing our economy.

“We are interested in reviving our industries that have gone moribund because of lack of electricity, portable water, access road.”

How Courts, INEC Cheated Us And We Bore The Pains – APC Boss, Oshiomhole

Editorial staff

January 31, 2020

Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole has said that his party has more reasons to stage street protests against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and courts in the country than opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for daylight cheating the part suffered.

“When I see people protesting, that is my primary constituency, to do protests but I don’t run after mad man when he is naked and I have to join him to run because I want to make a point.

“That is the reason we just allowed them to the sort of thing they were doing.”

The APC chairman, who spoke to newsmen today, January 31 at the presidential villa, Abuja, recalled what happened in Sokoto, saying that there were a lot of issues that INEC cannot defend “but we have to leave with the pain.

“Look at Rivers State. For some technical reasons, we were told we cannot even have candidates, and nobody asked questions. But because we are ruling party, we cannot just begin to go to the streets and begin to protest those things.

“You also know of another state Zamfara, where we won governorship, Senate, House of Representatives and the Supreme Court said our primaries were not perfect, therefore those who were not in the ballot box were declared winner, so we lived with that pain.

“If it is about mobilizing people to attack, we would have mobilized our people against the Supreme Court but that will not be a responsible behaviour in a democracy.

“So, we live with the pain because we understand that, we operate under the principle of separation of powers.”

Oshiomhole advised media not to accept half truths that PDP is parading.

“I think this is important, when I saw Secondus leading that protest, I was tempted to tell him who should be the real protedters: how did Wike, Emmanuel Udom and Dickson becsme governors? Supreme Court ordered the previous leadership, choose to completely dismiss the use of card reader, that is what has brought a lot of mischief now into our electoral system.

“Because, whereas the law recognizes the power of INEC to make bylaws and those bylaws are enforceable in court and there are judicial pronouncements holding those bylaws. when they wanted to allow these PDP states to be returned, their elections having been nulified by elections petition tribunal, nullified by the court of appeal on the basis that they did not comply with INEC guidelines, as regards to using card reader.

“The Supreme Court, looking for escape route for PDP, decided that the use of card reader, yes though in the INEC guidelines, is not in the law. Can everything possibly be in the law? “The same court recognized the power of INEC to make rules and regulations for smooth conduct of elections. We have stomached all of these because as they say, two wrongs don’t make a right.

“If we choose to question, on the streets of Nigeria, all of the impunity we have seen that have affected APC negatively coming from our courts, there will be no peace anywhere. But we have said that somebody must bear the price of peace that is why we choose to keep quiet.

“It doesn’t mean PDP has any valid cases.”

PDP Begs America, UK, Others To Upturn Nigeria’s Supreme Court Judgment On Ihedioha

Editorial staff

January 31, 2020

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has cried out to the United States, United Kingdom, and the European Union to intervene and upturn the judgement of the Supreme Court on Emeka Ihedioha as Governor of Imo State.

Chairman of the party, Uche Seconds and other leaders, who marched on Abuja streets today, January 31 in their continued protest against the judgement of the apex court, begged the international community “to come to the assistance of our dear country.”

Chairman of the part’s National Working Committee (NWC), Secondus, who led the street protest said: “on behalf of the PDP and the masses, we call on the international community to come to the assistance of our dear country.

“The content of our letter is for international community to advise our government to obey the rule of law particularly as it relates to National Assembly and judiciary.”

Secondus noted that President Buhari was overwhelmed with the security challenges in the country.

The protesters started the street march from the party’s national secretariat, and walked through some streets of the nation’s capital to the embassies where they submitted their petitions.

Those who took part in the protest include members of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC), Board of Trustees (BoT), and National Assembly, among others.

The National Organising Secretary, retired Colonel Austin Akobundu, had hinted in a statement yesterday, January 30 that movement during the demonstration would be by individual vehicles in a peaceful and non-violent manner.

He said: “In continuation of our protests as ordered by NEC, the National Chairman has directed that all members of the NWC, BOT, leadership, and members of the National Assembly, and other critical stakeholders of our great party would be presenting our petitions to the embassies of the United States of America, United Kingdom, and the European Union on the State of Affairs in the country.

The apex court had on January 14, 2020 declared Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the duly elected governor of the state, thereby bringing Ihedioha’s reign to an abrupt end.

US Embassy Describes Report Of Denying Oyedepo Visa As False

Editorial staff

January 31, 2020

The United States’ Embassy in Nigeria has denied depriving the founder of Living Faith Church Worldwide, otherwise known as Winners’ Chapel International, David Oyedepo, visa into America.

In a tweet today, January 31, the embassy said:

“#FalseNews Alert! Be advised, the reports making the rounds about a visa being denied to Nigerian Bishop Oyedepo are false. If you have seen this manufactured item in the media, help defeat this #misinformation by communicating to everyone that it is completely false,” the tweet said.

CoronaVirus Enters Britain, 2 Affected

Greenbarge Reporters

January 31, 2020

Two people in England have been diagnosed with the Wuhan coronavirus and are being treated in Newcastle.

The patients are members of the same family and are the first people in England to be diagnosed with it on British soil.

They did not fly back to the UK on the Government’s evacuation flight, which is scheduled to land in Oxfordshire today, January 31.

Until today, at least 161 people had tested negative for the virus in the UK but none had been diagnosed with it.

The infection makes England the 23rd country or territory outside of China to declare cases of the infection. It did, however, confirm that they are not in Wirral, Merseyside, where people being evacuated from the centre of the outbreak will be quarantined later today.

The patients are likely to be at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Newcastle, which is one of only four hospitals in the country equipped to deal with infectious patients like this.

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