Obasanjo attacks Buhari, Senators, Reps, judges

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo spoke yesterday on the state of the economy.

He urged President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently fix things “because Nigerians are suffering”.

He also warned against taking the $29.9billion loan as proposed by the president.

Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo

He said the nation needed less borrowing if the government could invite the right experts in and out of the government to assist it to fix the economy.

The former President denounced the National Assembly as a cesspool of corruption and some of the lawmakers as “unarmed robbers” who are defrauding the nation through constituency projects and bogus allowances and failing to subject themselves to institutional control.

President Buhari

He hoped Buhari would have the courage to deal with the corruption in the legislature as he is probing the judiciary.

Obasanjo supported the trial of some judges, saying although some people might be opposed to the invasion of the homes of some of the judges,

“a drastic problem deserves a drastic solution, not minding the method”.

He also chided the military for the corruption which was exposed with the rot in arms procurement and the misappropriation of the defence budget in the face of the Boko Haram insurgency. The military, he said, should return to its old ways of doing things. “The procurement system has to be streamlined and taken back to what it used to be.  The military is not a buyer of its own weapons, equipment, ammunition and materials.”

Obasanjo’s thoughts were expressed in a paper he presented at the First Akintola Williams Annual Lecture in Lagos. Williams is the doyen of accountancy.

He also criticised the idea of lumping together the three administrations of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – his own President Umaru Yar’Adua’s and President Goodluck Jonathan’s of the last 16 years and tarring them with the same brush.

Obasanjo indicated that his own administration stood out.

He said Nigerians were suffering and the government must be cautious  in taking steps against a mass revolt, especially by the youths.

He said: “If we do not fix the economy to relieve the pain and anguish of many Nigerians, the gain in fighting insurgency and corruption will pale into insignificance.  No administration can or should be comfortable with excruciating pain of debilitating and crushing economy.

“Businesses are closing, jobs are being lost and people are suffering.  I know that President Buhari has always expressed concern for the plight of the common people but that concern must be translated to workable and result-oriented socio-economic policy and programme that will turn the economy round at the shortest time possible.

“We cannot continue to do the same thing and expect things to change.  That will be a miracle which normally doesn’t happen in normal national economies.

“Economy requires a great element of trust to get it out of the doldrums, let alone out of negativity.  That trust and confidence has to be created.”

Obasanjo said: “If corruption is continued to be fought courageously and relentlessly, there will be substantial recovery from within and from without, coupled with plugging the holes of wastes in Ministries, Departments, Educational Institutions and parastatals and we will need less borrowing, if we would need borrowing at all, to get us out of recession than we might have thought.

“ Of course, we must be ready to bite the bullet of spending less on luxuries and the unneeded and what we can do without and earning more on production, services and trading.

“I believe that going for a huge loan under any guise is inadvisable and it will amount to going the line of soft option, which will come to haunt us in future.  We immediately need loans to stabilise our foreign reserve and embark on some infrastructure development but surely not $30 billion over a period of less than three years.

Obasanjo supported the ongoing clean-up of the Judiciary and the trial of some judges which he described as inevitable.

He said: “Three weeks before the first three judges were arrested for corruption, I was talking to a fairly senior retired public officer who put things this way, ‘The Judiciary is gone, the National Assembly is gone, the military is sunk and the civil service was gone before them; God save Nigeria’.  I said a loud Amen.  Three weeks later, the process of saving the Judiciary began.

“And if what I have gathered is anything to go by, there may be not less than two score of judicial officers that may have questions to answer.  That will be salutary for the Judiciary and for the Nation.

“While one would not feel unconcerned for the method used, one should also ask if there was an alternative.

“  A drastic action was needed to save the situation, albeit one would have preferred an alternative that would serve the same purpose, if there was one.  In the absence of that alternative, we must all thank God for giving the President the wisdom, courage and audacity for giving the security agencies the leeway to act.  There is virtually no corrupt Judge without being aided by a member of the bar.  The Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, has the responsibility to clean up its own house and help with the cleaning of the Judiciary.

On the National Assembly, Obasanjo said: “The National Assembly stinks and stinks to high heavens. It needs to be purged. With appropriate measures, the budget of the National Assembly can be brought down to less than 50% of what it is today. God will help Nigeria, but we must begin by helping ourselves.

“The National Assembly cabal of today is worse than any cabal that anybody may find anywhere in our national governance system at any time.

“Members of the National Assembly pay themselves allowances for staff and offices they do not have or maintain. Once you are a member, you are co-opted and your mouth is stuffed with rottenness and corruption that you cannot opt out as you go home with not less than N15 million a month for a Senator and N10 million a month for a member of the House of Representatives.

“The National Assembly is a den of corruption by a gang of unarmed robbers.

“Another means by which the National Assembly embarks on corruption spree is their so-called oversight responsibility. They instigate and collude with Ministries, Departments, Parastatals and Agencies to add to their budget outside what was submitted by the President with the purpose of sharing the addition or they threaten such units to reduce what was submitted by the President unless there is a promise of kickback.

“They can also set up a spurious committee to investigate a project while they call on the contractor to pay them or the executive officer in charge of the project to cough up money, otherwise they would write a bad report

“By our Constitution, the Revenue Mobilisation, Fiscal and Allocation Commission should be responsible for fixing the remunerations of the Executive and the Legislative arms of the government. Any salary, allowance or perquisite not recommended by the Commission should not be budgeted for; but crooks and crocked that most of the members of the National Assembly are, they will try to find other ways which must be blocked.

“In the past, they even instructed the Clerk of the National Assembly not to reveal to the Executive details of their remuneration. May God give the President the wisdom, courage and audacity to be able to do with the National Assembly what is being done with the Judiciary.

“We should not continue to live with the impunity and corruption of the National Assembly.

Obasanjo also advised the Federal Government to protect the whistle blower in the National Assembly, an apparent reference to a former Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin, who accused House Speaker Yakubu Dogara of “budget padding”. Jibrin is on suspension.

* Source: The Nation

Kwara uncovers 8,863 ghost workers gulping N437.5m monthly

By Wale Odunsi 

Kwara State Personnel Database Development committee says it has uncovered a total of 8,863 suspected ghost personnel on the payroll of both the state and local governments.

The alternate Chairman of the Committee, Alhaji Isiaka Gold, said this yesterday while submitting the Committee’s report to the Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed at the Government House, Ilorin.

He said the 8, 863 personnel could not be verified in the just concluded staff biometric verification exercise, noting that the development could potentially save both the State and local governments N437, 500, 513.56 monthly.

Alhaji Gold said at the time of commencing the verification exercise, the total number of staff on the payroll of both the State and local governments was 81, 446, but only 72, 583 of the workers and pensioners scaled through the verification process.

Giving a further breakdown of the report, the alternate chairman revealed that of the 35, 656 workers on the State government payroll, only 31, 652 were cleared and verified, leaving a total of 4,004 unverified personnel.

He said out of the 45, 790 workers and pensioners on the payroll of the 16 LGs in the State, only 40, 931 were verified, which leaves a total of 4, 859 unverified.

The Committee recommended that the verification exercise should be continuous and that the State government should implement a harmonized staff identification system, certificate verification and clock-in system, which will be deployed by the consultant at no cost to the government.

In his response, Governor Ahmed endorsed all the findings of the committee and also directed the State Ministry of Finance to adopt the Committee’s report to prepare the payroll of both the local and state government workers henceforth.

The governor, however, said that the ministry should warehouse the projected savings until it is ascertained that all workers and pensioners are verified.

Governor Ahmed thanked the consultant and members of the committee for the quality work done and expressed confidence that with the submission of the report, there will be an effective payroll administration at both the local and state levels.

·         Source: Daily Post

Ondo Guber: Okowa hails Appeal Court ruling on Jegede

▪ Lauds Supreme Court Justices on timely intervention

Delta State Governor Senator Dr Ifeanyi Okowa has hailed the court of appeal ruling which declared  Eyitayo Jegede, (SAN) as the authentic gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) for the November 26, 2016Governorship election in Ondo State.

Governor Okowa

Governor Okowa described the decision of the Court of Appeal panel led by Justice Ibrahim Salauwa, which on Wednesday upheld Eyitayo Jegede, the candidate of the Makarfi led PDP as a triumph of good over political bitterness aided by selfish interests.

Reacting to the unanimous judgment of the appellate court that Jegede was duly nominated as the authentic candidate of the party, Okowa in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Charles Aniagwu in Asaba on Wednesday, urged the Sheriff led faction of the party and its candidate, Jimoh Ibrahim to stop distracting the party and support Jegede to deliver for the party in the Ondo election.

He said: “I commend the Court of Appeal in Abuja for their unananimous judgment which restored Eyitayo Jegede as the candidate of our party. This ruling is very significant because the will of the people, clearly expressed, cannot be thwarted by a clique being propelled by political bitterness and selfish interests they want to promote”.

In a related development,  Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has also commended the Justices of the Supreme Court which on Tuesday ruled that the Appeal Court can proceed to give judgment on all matters before it in respect of the Ondo State Guber Elections.

Okowa said but for the prompt intervention of the Supreme Court, anarchy would have been the order of the day in Ondo State.

“I thank the Supreme Court for their prompt and unambiguous judgment. “The justices of the Supreme Court have once again entrenched the hope of the common man in the fairness and non-partisanship of the judiciary.

"It is therefore my expectation that with the judgment, all PDP faithful will join hands together and work towards the success of the party at the polls".

Workers’ strike: Delta Assembly Speaker’s CPS lied, says PASAN

·        Writes Speaker

·        Demands apology, retraction of ‘libelous publication’

Workers of the Delta state House of Assembly, under the aegis of Parliamentary staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN), Delta state have expressed disgust with the statement issued by Mr. Henry Ebireiri the Chief Press secretary (CPS) to the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Monday Igbuya in which the for CPS described the protesting workers as “miscreants.”

Monday Igbuya, Delta Assembly Speaker.

Literally making the point that the CPS lied, the workers in a memo signed by PASAN Chairman Comrade Edozie Emmanuel and Secretary, Comrade Emmanuel Osubor, and addressed to the Speaker, entitled: “Libelous publication against PASAN”, the workers declared: “We draw your attention to the above subject, and particularly to a publication in The guardian Newspaper of Thursday, November 17, 2016, page 25, captioned :Delta Assembly, union may clash over non-implementation of agreement” and at last paragraph wherein one Mr. Henry Ebireiri –Chief Press Secretary to the RT. Hon. Speaker acted on behalf of and in the authority of the Speaker, referring to PASAN members as “miscreants and dismissing the purported agreement reached with the House Leadership.

“We write to express our dissatisfaction and displeasure of the above mentioned publication. In the light of the above, our Union demands:

·         A retraction of the said publication via The Guardian Newspaper.

·         A formal letter of apology to PASAN.

“We wish to state that our Union is an umbrella body canvassing and dialoguing for better staff welfare package and our membership is made-up of responsible, credible and worthy public servants who are guided by extant rules.”

DESTMA authorities apologize to Trend FM, journalists for incivility

The authorities of the Delta State Traffic Management Agency, DESTMA, led by the Director General, Mr. Stephen Dieseruvwe and the Director of Operations, Navy Commander Sam Azubuike Idah (Rtd) have apologized to the pioneer private radio station in the state, Trend FM and journalists for being temperamentally uncivil after the radio station aired a news report from the arrest of a school bus driver who allegedly beat the traffic and ordering down of school children from the bus on their way to school.

The duo Wednesday, 23rd November, 2016, offered these apologies during a press conference with journalists in Asaba to clear the issue. They both asked the forgiveness of journalists who had come so hard on them, adding that they realised they had made mistakes in the cause of carrying out their official functions.

The DG, Mr. Stephen Dieseruvwe therefore sought the synergy of the media practitioners in order to succeed, adding that their assignments included traffic control, management and enforcement for the purposes of ensuring free flow of traffic within the state for a better social economic activities in the state. He stated that any driver that is stopped is as a result that a traffic offence has been committed, exonerating the field men from indiscriminate arrests and collection of money from offenders.

However, the confident Navy Commander Sam Azubuike Idah (Rtd) described self as gentler and simpler in office than when on duty on the roads; explaining that he is not a superman to be above mistakes. He affirmed that he had from inception of the Agency, conceptualized a system where the staff would be firm but fair, adding that so far a traffic has been beaten by making calls while driving, not putting on sit belt or beating the traffic light, such offender must be arrested.

He explained that what happened at the Trend FM where he had gone to complain against their broadcast was unfortunate. He said of a truth a driver, driving a school bus for Benita School was stopped and booked for traffic offence, but was not arrested, neither were the school children ordered down from the bus.

Mr. Idah maintained that after the incident the driver refused to leave the scene with the argument that he would not have the money to pay, but instead called a parent who came and asked the children to come down from the bus.

He stated that when he heard that the school vehicle was impounded and the school children ordered down, he was furious and had gone to locate Trend FM to speak with the studio manager or the supervisor; but when he could not see any of them, he ended up speaking with a staff where words were exchanged whether palatable or not he could not give account.

The former military man said the Proprietress of Benita School and the conductor of the school bus could testify to the true state of the story. He said the driver committed offence to have beaten traffic and when stopped had no driver's licence. He posited that the Agency does not collect fine which is exclusively reserved for the judiciary, stating that what they collect is penalty after an offender has been handed a citation.

Mr. Sam averred that he had lived in the US for a long time to understand how to respect the rights of the media and freedom of information. He said there was no intention to confront the Trend FM in an uncivil manner, stressing that we should let bygone be bygone and work in synergy to move the Agency and the state government to the next level of development.

Moreover, the NUJ Chairman, Comrade Norbert Chiazor commended the DESTMA team for taking the bold step to come and brief the press and to clarify things. He advised them not to wait until relationships go sore before taking the fire-brigade approach to solve issues.

Chiazor admonished the duo of Dieseruvwe and Idah to show maturity and lead the transport organisation by example and not to allow misunderstanding creep into it. He implored them to recognise the power of the media and always ensure that they build synergy and partnership with the press in order to succeed in their assignment.

Written By: Patrick Ochei.

Nigeria's Ex-minister abducted in Kaduna

Gunmen have reportedly abducted Nigeria’s former minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bagudu Hirse in Kaduna state. Daily Trust reports that Hirse was abducted “right in front of the residence of President Muhammadu Buhari’s powerful nephew, Alhaji Mamman Daura, on Inuwa Wada road in Kaduna.”

Mamman Daura was reportedly at home when the gunmen struck It was learnt that the former minister, with his friends, had gone on a condolence visit to the family of the late Sultan of Sokoto, Ibrahim Dasuki on kabiru road. This is a few meters from Inuwa Wada road. He then decided to make a quick stopover at the house of Daura who was reportedly at home and was receiving guests and other family members.

The report quoted a witness as saying that Hirse alighted from his car with a friend he simply identified as Talba and was exchanging pleasantries with some guests who were standing in front of Daura’s house when an ash-coloured Toyota Corolla drove into the street at top speed and stopped in front of the former minister and his friends. The witness said the three young men, armed and masked, jumped down from the car and accosted the former minister almost immediately.

 “From what I could hear, they were asking him to get into their car but he was trying to seek further explanations from them but at that time, people started approaching the scene so one of them raised the gun he was holding and made to shoot but it did not fire, he tried it the second time and it failed, but the third time, a shot rang and people ran for dear lives,” the witness said

At the time of this report, the whereabouts of the victim was yet to be ascertained and the police was yet to react. Kaduna has gradually become a hub for kidnappers in Nigeria. In October, Laurentia Laraba Mallam, the minister of the environment during the government of Goodluck Jonathan, was abducted along with her 73-year- old husband, Pius in Jere, in Kaduna state. She was released about 24 hours after the incident. 

Resign now, Sokoto protesters tell Buhari

·       Call for Jonathan’s return indicates rejection of Buhari, says Group

By Sylvester Ugwuanyi 

Critics of the Buhari administration, under the banner of the Wailing Wailers have stated that Thursday’s incident in Sokoto, where some young residents bearing placards asked the visiting ex-President Goodluck Jonathan to “come back” shows that President Muhammadu Buhari “has been rejected by the same people who massively voted him in 2015.”

Protesting Sokoto youths and their placard.

The group, in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday by its Acting National Publicity Secretary, Usman Abubakar, stated that the lingering economic woes in the country, as well as the rising inflation rate was an indication that Buhari does not have solution to the nation’s problems, and should as such honourably resign.

Recall that Jonathan was in Sokoto State to pay a condolence visit to the family of late 18th Sultan of Sokoto, Ibrahim Dasuki, when some youths in Hubbaren Shehu called on the former president to come back to office. 

The late Sultan is the father of Sambo Dasuki, who served as the National Security Adviser under Jonathan.

The statement by the wailers read: “We are calling on President Muhammadu Buhari for the second time within the week to honorably resign and return back to his farm in Daura for retirement.

“It is glaring that Mr. President does not have any solution to the lingering economic woes, hardship and suffering that has befallen the country. We cannot continue to take it that all is well when the economic situation in the country is critically disastrous.

“Just days ago, reports showed that Nigeria’s inflation has risen to 11 years record breaking 18.3%. In the history of Nigeria, the last time we experienced hyper inflation, depression, recession and famine was when Buhari brutally upset a civil rule and took over powers in 1984.

“The repeat of 1984 brutal and violent rulership is panning out in 2016, it is quite unfortunate that students of history jettisoned all they knew about Buhari and packaged him as a reformed democrat. We are happy in a way that all those that propped him up and elevated him to Aso Rock are now in deep regret.

“Those that supported him out of ethnic and religious sentiments are now aware of the gravest mistake as Hunger, Starvation and poverty does not respect ethnic group or religion, but, it is being exerted on all and sundry. It is in evidence that Nigerian people are totally ill-fated with Buhari.

“This is why we are calling out that Mr President should tow a very noble and honorable path by resigning and hand over powers to the National Assembly.

“We called for his resignation on Tuesday, little did we know that the Sokoto and other Northern states’ people are also demanding his resignation.

“This was obviously demonstrated when the former President of Nigeria, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan paid a condolence visit to sympathize with the family of the late Dasuki, in Sokoto State. It is on reports that the residents thronged out in their thousands with placards chanting “Baba Jonathan Please Come Back.”

“Truthfully speaking, if the country is moving in the right direction, no one will care about the rejected stone, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Since Buhari came to power, it has been one bad policy or the other, it has been brutal enforcements of one unworkable policy or the other.

“Time is fast spent, the economy is chattered beyond redeemable levels and the entire system is in tatters. we enjoin all Nigerians to rise up from docility and demand for #BuhariMustGo.

“Leadership should not be a do or die affair, it should not also be a matter of forceful foisting of oneself on Nigerians as though we do not have rights to demand for removal or impeachment of a failed president.

“We are making this call because we want Nigerians to begin again to experience good economy devoid of recession and spiral downturn and wide spread of poverty.

“Nigerians do not deserve alarmists, propagandists and genocidists to seize the leadership of this great country. We must look for noble men of worthy characters to lead our nation.

“We are also using this medium to sensitize Nigerian youths to rise up in unity to the occasion and begin to think of replacing some of the old people who want to perpetuate themselves and their lineage in power. If they say the youths are the leaders of tomorrow, the question is, when will the tomorrow be? If youths themselves sit back without taking action? Now, we declare that tomorrow is now and Nigerian youths must now arise in strength for the good of our people and the nation.”

Source: Daily Post