Author: The Nation

The Federal Government on Friday inaugurated Bollard Pull Tug Boats (vessels) at the Lagos ports acquired by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).

Justifying the need for the unveiling of the new vessels, NPA Managing Director/CEO, Mohammed Bello Koko, said the government was driven by the need to provide efficient domestic cargo needs, win back transit cargo hitherto lost to neighbours and cater to the maritime requirements of landlocked neighbours.

He explained that the state-of-the-art vessels, a three-pronged strategy of people technology, infrastructure and equipment, are part of the fulfillment of the agency’s service charter to provide relevant marine crafts to support port security, patrol, surveillance and deliver excellent marine services, especially with the commencement of operations of Nigeria’s first Deep Seaport, the Lekki Deep Seaport 

Bello Koko was represented at the event by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Transportation, Dr. Magdelene Ajani.

He said: “I am greatly delighted and honored to welcome you to this occasion, which is a demonstration of this administration’s resolve to position the Nigerian Ports Authority to respond squarely to the contemporary demands of trade facilitation.

“Imbued by our corporate aspiration of attaining hub status by more efficiently servicing domestic cargo needs, winning back transit cargo hitherto lost to our maritime neighbours and positioning to cater to the maritime requirements of our landlocked neighbours, we have deployed a three-pronged strategy driven by people technology, infrastructure and equipment such as the state-of-the-art vessels we are gathered here to commission today.

“This occasion is part of the fulfillment of our service charter to provide relevant marine crafts to support port security, patrol, surveillance, and most importantly deliver excellent marine services, especially with the commencement of operations of Nigeria’s first Deep Seaport, the Lekki Deep Seaport.

“Our determination to continuously enhance our operational efficiencies accounts for the purchase of these new 80 Ton Bollard Pull Tugboats christened M.T MAIKOKO and M.T DA-OPUKURO to complement our existing fleet of tugs and recently commissioned Security Patrol Boats (SPBs) and Pilot Cutters deployed to enhance channel security across all our locations.”

The Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnics (SSANIP) has lamented the non-payment of arrears of minimum wage by state and federal polytechnics.

The association asked the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to look into all cases of omission and short-changing of its members in a bid to ensure that the identified “anomalies” are rectified.

The association said this in a communique issued at the end of its General Executive Council in Abuja and signed by its President, Adebanjo Ogunsipe, and Acting National Secretary, Emmanuel Enyiegor.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari in April 2019 signed the minimum wage into law.

Employers of labour were expected to implement the law along with the consequential adjustments that came with the wage.

Over four years since the wage was passed into law, some state establishments are still struggling to pay the arrears.

SSANIP has asked that the payment schedule for the arrears be made available for respective beneficiary institutions to allow for easy collation of complaints.

Part of the communique reads: “Council-in-Session deliberated on the report of haphazard payment of arrears of New Minimum Wage in many Federal Polytechnics and was miffed at the fact that many members in these branches were yet to be paid. Council thus resolved to charge the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, to look into all cases of omission and short-changing in a bid to ensure that these observed anomalies are rectified. Council equally charged that the Payment Schedule for the arrears should be made available for respective beneficiary institutions to allow for easy collation of complaints.

“Council-in-Session frowned at the seeming regular delay in the release of third-party deductions in Federal Polytechnics. In like manner, Council was miffed at the withholding of 25 months NHF deductions of members in Federal Institutions by the same payment platform. Council further noted that this development is gravely affecting the running of Union activities and demoralizing to affected members. In view of the evident recalcitrance of the IPPIS and its inability to escape fraudulent tendencies, Council resolved to pass a vote of no confidence on the payment platform.”

The polytechnic workers also decried the failure of the Federal Government to release the reviewed Schemes of Service document.

“Council noted that in spite of the many promises from the government, the much-expected reviewed Scheme of Service document is yet to be released. Council therefore, charged the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, who is saddled with the responsibility to endeavor to fast-track the immediate release of the Scheme of Service document to avert industrial disharmony in the Polytechnic system,” the association said.

The association also lamented the poor funding and administration of “many State Polytechnics in Nigeria, and resolved that State Governments needed to do more in the deployment of funds for the development of these Polytechnics as well as the engagement of capable hands in the administration of State Polytechnics and similar institutions in their domain, in the best interest of Polytechnic education and the technological advancement of the country.”

The polytechnic workers equally decided the nonpayment of the backlog of salary arrears by many polytechnics.

“Council equally noted the backlog of salary arrears owed members in many Polytechnics, particularly, such institutions as Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, Ondo State (11 months); Abdu Gusau Polytechnic, Talata Mafara, Zamfara State (4 months); Osun State Polytechnic, Iree, Osun State (14 months); Osun State College of Technology, Esa Oke, Osun State (14 months).

“Abia State Polytechnic, Aba (35 months);  all State Polytechnics in Benue State (11 months). It noted the hardship that members in such institutions had been subjected to and thus enjoined all concerned State Governments to wake up to their responsibilities,” the communique stated.

The Kwara Central Senator-elect, Mallam Saliu Mustapha, has said President Bola Tinubu has not imposed on the lawmakers his choice of leaders of the 10th National Assembly.

Mustapha, who spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, said the President only appealed to their sense of reasoning and left the ultimate judgement to the legislators.

Recall that the ruling party, in its zoning arrangement, endorsed Senators Godswill Akpabio/ Barau Jubrin for Senate leadership; and Messrs Abass Tajudeen/Ben Kalu for House of Representatives leadership.

“APC has a covenant to deliver to the Nigerian people. The President has not forced anybody to say, ‘You must vote Akpabio’. The President has not forced anybody to say ‘You must vote Tajudeen Abbas’. All he has done is to advise and seek our understanding.

He appealed to us and said; ‘Please, Gentlemen, I’ll like it if you can do me this favour so as to get my government on a good start’.

If he is asking for that favour it is because he knows the capacity of the person in question,” Mustapha said on Friday.

Notwithstanding efforts by the outgoing Ninth National Assembly to wash off its tag of ‘rubber stamp’, Senator Binos Dauda Yaroe, on Saturday, said he was in agreement with Nigerians that the Ninth Senate  was actually rubber stamp.

Yaroe who represents Adamawa South spoke while contributing to debate during the valedictory session of the Senate in Abuja.

He insisted that the recent suspension and arrest of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele over corruption allegations by the Department of State Services was an indictment of the National Assembly for failure to carry out its oversight activities as required.

He urged the incoming 10th National Assembly to be alive to their responsibilities by being a watchdog of the executive.

He said: “I agree with those who say the ninth Senate is a rubber stamp.

“Furthermore the suspension of the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele and subjecting him to investigation is a mild indictment of the National Assembly. This is so because if we had done our oversight duties properly, we would not have gotten to this level.

“I hope the 10th Senate will take its job as the watchdog of the Executive more seriously. I also hope that the 10th Senate will operate and adhere to its own rules, take their rules on the procedures of the bills in rule 76, 77 and 78 for instance those bills for second reading are circulated to all senators.

“But very often, bills will pass first and second reading without senators searching for them. I hope the 10th Senate will conduct its business more properly.”

A mass communication scholar, Dr. Bisi Olawunmi, has advised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to be wary of foreign do-gooders and self-promoting lobbyists who may seek to impose a foreign agenda on his administration, through the backdoor.

Olawunmi gave the advice in a statement against the backdrop of the aggressive lobbying of the Tinubu presidency by former British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, who visited the then President-elect, Tinubu,  on May 23, 2023, at Defence House, Abuja, ahead of his May 29, 2023 inauguration.

 Blair, founder of Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, who was received by Tinubu, in the company of then Vice President-elect  Kashim Shettima and House Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, now Chief of Staff to the President, among others, had proposed to help the new administration in actualizing its priorities. Blair  had pledged: “We would like to help in any way with your administration’’ in response to which Tinubu had enthused about how Nigeria can benefit from the “amazing work of the Institute.’’

The varsity teacher noted that a picture of Blair at that May 23, 2023 meeting with Tinubu, Shettima and Gbajabiamila , the three most powerful leaders in the new Nigerian government, was prominently displayed on the front pages of many newspapers, including ‘The Nation’ and the ‘Nigerian  Tribune’ on Wednesday, May 24, 2023, giving public testimony to what he considered as underserved cheap access and reverence accorded the former British Prime Minister.

He had wondered which office – Tinubu’s Media office or Tony Blair Institute – promoted the publication of that picture in the media.

Olawunmi,  a  Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication, Adeleke  University, Ede, Osun State, pointed out that Blair had also been featured as a guest speaker at the induction of new and returning governors organized by the government in Abuja, indicating the extent of his in-road into the Nigerian government.

Cautioning the Tinubu presidency against being sold a bogey, Olawunmi stated that Mr. Blair’s antecedents of imperial, condescending relationship with African countries should not be lost on the new administration which may erroneously see a Blair publicly flaunted relationship as a foreign legitimacy reinforcement strategy.

He recalled that as British Prime Minister between 1997 and 2007, Blair bent on perpetuating British imperial hegemony on Zimbabwe, had relentlessly waged economic, political and diplomatic war against Zimbabwe when he failed to pressure President Robert Mugabe into abandoning the programme of returning lands appropriated by the tiny minority of White Settlers to native Zimbabweans.

Olawunmi, while admitting that  Nigeria is facing serious challenges and needing all the assistance it could get, contended that the situation is not that hopeless such that the Tinubu presidency will project its leadership, perhaps inadvertently,  as ready to lie prostrate before some foreign do-gooders posturing as being on a rescue mission to the nation.

Nigeria, he stressed, must not be seen as offering itself as a cheap financial rehabilitation home for retired British Prime Ministers.

• Obi, LP play footage of INEC’s Yakubu, Okoye speaking on election results’ transmission
• We complied with all guidelines, regulations, Atiku’s witnesses tell court

The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), yesterday rejected two applications by Mr. Peter Obi and his party, the Labour Party (LP) to issue and deliver interrogatories to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The court said the applications lacked merit.

Obi and the LP had filed the applications to obtain more information from INEC and to have the first application heard outside the pre-hearing session.

 Ruling on the applications yesterday, the court’s five-member panel was unanimous that the two applications were filed outside the time allowed by law.

 The Presiding Justice (PJ), Justice Haruna Tsammani said the petitioners did not establish any circumstance of extreme urgency that would have made the court exercise discretion in their favour.

 He said the situation the petitioners found themselves in was self-induced and could not pass as special circumstances on which the court could act in their favour.

 Paragraph 17(1) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act 2022, according to him, requires the petitioners to file all applications within 10 days of filing their reply to the defendants’ responses to their petition.

 The judge observed that while the petitioners filed their last reply on April 21, they filed the application, in which they sought to serve INEC interrogatories on May 22, the day the court ended the pre-hearing session.

 He added that even though the application was actually filed on May 22, the petitioners’ lawyer failed to draw the court’s attention to it, as was required of him.

 “I do not believe that the application was filed before the proceedings of that day. Even if it was filed before the proceedings of that day, the lawyer did not bring that fact to the attention of the court,” the judge said.

 He held that it was wrong for the petitioners’ lawyer to attempt to avoid taking the blame for failing to act within the time allowed by the law.

 “The application is incompetent having not been filed within the time allowed by law and the court has no jurisdiction to hear it. This application is hereby struck out,” Justice Tsammani said.

 Shortly after the ruling, another lawyer to the petitioners, Jibrin Okutepa (SAN) applied to play two videos which they tendered on Friday.

 The first, which was footage of a press briefing by INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, showed him talking about plans for the election and pledging that BVAS would be used for voter accreditation, while results would be transmitted from polling units in real-time.

 The second one showed INEC’s National Commissioner, Festus Okoye explaining the efforts made to address the glitches experienced during the presidential and National Assembly elections.

 Part of the second video also showed President Bola Tinubu announcing his selection of Kashim Shettma as his running mate for the election, which Okutepa claimed supported their case of double nomination.

 After the videos were played, the petitioners proceeded to tender some Certified True Copies (CTCs) of INEC materials, including Forms EC40G (PU), EC40G and EC40G1 from Benue State.

 Further hearing in the petition has been adjourned till 9 am on Tuesday.

 Earlier yesterday, two former members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), who worked as INEC ad-hoc staff during the last elections, said they complied with all rules and regulations in carrying out their assignment.

 Alheri Ayuba and Sadiya Mohammed Haruna who were subpoenaed witnesses of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, spoke while testifying as the petitioners’ 17th and 18th witnesses before the PEPC.

 Ayuba and Haruna said the whole process went well except for the hitch they experienced while trying to upload the images of the result sheets immediately at their polling units, using the BVAS machine.

 They, however, said they failed to include, in the written statements, their inability to upload the results.

 Led in evidence by the petitioners’ lawyer, Chris Uche (SAN),  Ayuba and Haruna said they served as polling unit Presiding Officers in Abuja.

 The witnesses adopted their written statements after lawyers to the respondents – Kemi Pinheiro (SAN) for INEC, Emmanuel Ukala (SAN) for President Bola Tinubu and Solomon Umoh (SAN) for the All Progressives Congress (APC) – raised objections to the admission of their testimonies.

 Under cross-examination by Pinheiro, Ayuba said: “I performed my duties diligently on the day of the election. I confirm that the election went smoothly besides the issue of the BVAS that failed to upload results.

 “BVAS was used to accredit all the voters. After sorting the results, I announced it to everybody’s hearing. I entered the results diligently in the presence of everybody at the polling unit,” she said.

 The witness added that all the agents of the political parties present got copies of the result sheet (Form EC8A), the original copy of which she personally submitted at the Ward Collation Centre.

 “It was the image of the Form EC8A that I captured with the BVAS that I tried to upload, but I could not,” Ayuba said.

 Under cross-examination by Ukala, Ayuba said she conducted herself strictly in compliance with INEC Guidelines and Regulations for the conduct of elections.

 The witness said she was neither induced nor influenced by anybody to manipulate the process.

 “The results that I entered in Form EC8A were the correct results in the polling unit. I took the results by myself to the Ward Collation Centre l. I am aware that the results were fully collated at the Ward Collation Centre,” she said.

 Ayuba said she did not include, in her statement, that she encountered challenges while trying to upload the results.

 While being cross-examined by another lawyer to INEC, Steve Adehi (SAN), Haruna said: “On the day of the election, I carried out my duty as we were taught.

 “Apart from the BVAS problem, which was about transmission, every other thing went well. At the end of the election, I sorted out the votes and entered them in Form EC8A manually. I gave copies to party agents.

 “It was when I tried to transmit the image of the results sheet that the BVAS failed. The party agents followed me up to the Ward Collation Centre.

 “They refused to go and insisted on following me to the Ward Collation Centre where I submitted the results in Form EC8A,” she said.

 Under cross-examination by Ukala, the witness also said she complied with all the rules and was not induced by anyone in the course of the election.

 Haruna said after Form EC8A was duly signed by party agents and herself, she took a photograph of the form with the BVAS device and posted a copy of the result in a conspicuous place for people to see.

 At the conclusion of Haruna’s testimony, the court adjourned further hearing in the petition till next Tuesday at 2 pm.

The resignation  of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson from the parliament ahead of publication of the Partygate report does not mean it is the end of his political career, one of his close allies said yesterday.

Johnson’s ex-adviser Will Walden said the former PM “had seen the writing on the wall”.

The Commons Privileges Committee has considered whether the ex-PM lied to Parliament over No 10 lockdown parties.

Johnson dismissed the committee as a “witch hunt”, while Labour labelled the former prime minister a “coward”.

Speaking on a radio programme in London, Walden, who was chief media adviser to Johnson when he was foreign secretary, said he would not have wanted to fight a by-election he was almost certain to lose.

“There is only one thing driving Boris and that is that he likes to win, or at least not to lose”.

He added: “He knew he probably would lose a by-election in his marginal seat. His primary motivation here, as it has been for the last year or so, is protecting his version of the narrative.

“So, by going, as he has all guns blazing, he is able to avoid defeat, he is able to blame pretty much everyone else including it seems anyone that voted Remain in 2016.”

Asked whether this was the end for Mr Johnson, he said: “I don’t think it’s the end. I don’t know where we are on the panoply of beginning, middle and end, but this is typical Boris.”

It is worth reflecting on what people mean by “the end”.

It may well be the end of the road for him in Parliament – although that is not for certain – but it is certainly not the end of the road for him in terms of his influence.

Announcing his resignation as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip late on Friday evening, Mr Johnson issued an eviscerating 1,000-word statement.

The committee was reportedly preparing to recommend a 10-day suspension for Mr Johnson from the Commons, which would have resulted in a recall petition among his constituents and a potential by-election.

Mr Johnson said the draft report he had seen was “riddled

The outgoing Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, yesterday urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to deploy diplomatic shuttle to ensure the release of Senator Ike Ekwremadu from jail in the United Kingdom.

Bamidele made the call in his remarks during the valedictory session of the 9th Senate in Abuja.

According to him, what happened to Senator Ekweremadu could happen to any parent.

He said: “My heart goes to that gentleman, Distinguished Senator Ike Ekweremadu. What happened to him is something that could have happened to any parent.

“It is our own call to  President Bola Tinubu that the administration should resume all the necessary diplomatic shuttle to ensure that Senator Ike Ekweremadu is released.”

It could be recalled that the former Deputy Senate President was sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison for organ trafficking in May, 2023.

The sentence was pronounced at the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, UK.

Bamidele also mourned four Senators who died while serving the people of their senatorial districts in the National Assembly, namely, Senator Bayo Osinowo, Senator Rose Oko, Senator Benjamin Uwajumogu and Senator Ignatius Longjam.

with inaccuracies and reeks of prejudice”.

He described the committee as a “kangaroo court” whose purpose “has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts”.

The committee is due to meet tomorrow to finalise its conclusions and is expected to publish its findings shortly after – likely to be on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said the former prime minister had “jumped” and told BBC Radio 5 Live “to me, he is a coward”.

Outgoing lawmaker, Senator Rochas Okorocha, on Saturday, said the way Senate President Ahmad Lawan got re-elected into the 10th National Assembly remains a mystery.

Okorocha who spoke while contributing to debate during the valedictory session organised by the Senate, said even though he was in the field with Lawan during the  presidential primary election, he did not know how Lawan got his ticket after they both crashed out of the APC presidential race.

He said: “I did not contest for senate this period. I only contested for the office of president.

“You (Lawan) are a very smart politician. How you came back (to the Senate) is another chapter in our political history that we need to discuss.

“I was there in the field with you running for president, I never knew how you were able to meander, leaving some of us. Next time you must teach me how to do that.”

In his response Lawan said: “It was easy. I was there with you in the field and after our defeat, my constituents thought they needed me again.

“They asked for me to come back and it was a tortuous journey because we had to go through the courts. I didn’t even appeal the judgement that did not give me the contest.

“The party and the stakeholders appealed on my behalf up to the supreme court, so there is nothing critical or remarkable. In fact you have nothing to learn from it.

On his part, Okorocha retorted: “I want to be your student next time. It is more of ‘the more you look, the less you see.’”