The Nation Newspaper

Category: Abuja Review

  • Soaring commodity prices unsettle consumers

    A market survey conducted by The Nation has revealed that prices of commodities have been rising in most markets, causing enormous worry for many residents in Federal Capital Territory (FCT), especially low-income earners.

    A visit to Wuse and Utako markets in Abuja revealed that there has been a presistent increase in the prices of basic household commodities such as rice, beans, beverages, wheat, yam, red oil, garri and groundnut oil, among others.

    The reason for this increase in the price of commodities has  been ascribed to the ever rising exchange rate and high cost of transportation, among other factors.

    A trader at Wuse market told our correspondent that the increase in the prices of food itmes is as a result of the cost of transportation, adding that there has been low patronage following the price increase.

    He said that he makes little or no profit from some of his goods in order to keep the customers coming.

    Some of the items that have witnessed a sharp increase in prices include rice which was formerly sold for N10,500 a bag, now going for N18,000 or N19,000 depending on the brand, while a measure of beans formerly sold for N350 is now sold for N550 and above,  and a keg of 10 litres groundnut oil has soared from N4500  to N8,000 and above depending on the brand.

    Speaking on the development, a mother of two recalled her experience at the market. She disclosed that a sachet of milk she had been buying for N1,400 is now sold for N1,800.

    She said,  ”The price of  everything generally is now very expensive. It is not easy at all, if not that I come to the market myself I would have thought my househelp has been lying about most of the prices of these items, it’s really unbelievable.”

    Hussan Ibrahim who sells smoked fish disclosed that there has been no price increase in his product,  there has been low patronage, “fish dey cheap now, but dem no they buy well, na only dry fish no add money. Na as we dey buy before we still dey buy now we no add anything but garri, yam, rice, everything don cost.”

    He added that people complain of not having enough money to buy major foodstuff let alone buying dry fish.

    Hajia Memunat who often visits Utako Market said that due to the price rise, her budget can no longer cover the quantity of food she used to buy, and this has reduced her purchasing power.

    Some of the traders said that the price increase can be better explained by the manufaturers as it starts from them.

  • Reps to residents: stop paying tax to unlawful collectors

    The House of Representatives has advised residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to stop paying tenement rate and property tax to consultants, explaining that the body responsible for tax collection in the FCT has not been set up.

    While condemning the unlawful collection of taxes in the FCT, the lawmakers said the crude method employed by the so-called consultants was designed to extort money from residents.

    The House has directed its Committee on FCT to conduct an investigation into the matter as well as establish the reason behind the non-composition of the FCT Internal Revenue Board (FCTIRS) despite previous resolutions of the House to do so.

    The decision of the House followed the adoption of a motion by Emmanuel Oker-Jev (APC, Benue), who regretted that certain individuals have in various guises engaged in forceful collection of taxes and tenement rates without the consent of relevant authorities.

    According to him, the taxes and rates are arbitrarily collected by individuals brandishing forged court documents while threatening to lock up premises of defaulters

    Oker-Jev noted that such act was aimed at defrauding unsuspecting members of the public in these days of recession.

    “It is worrisome that the FCTIRS, the agency empowered by law to collect taxes and rates in the FCT has not been set up, thus allowing all manners of individuals to extort money from hapless law-abiding residents of the FCT,” he added.

    The lawmakers were unanimous in their condemnation of the illegality saying that a stop must be put to it immediately because to extort money from anyone in this period of recession is sheer wickedness.

    The lawmakers also noted that forcing residents to pay illegal taxes by the consultants, who were described as hawkers amounts to double jeopardy as the victims would have to pay such taxes again whenever the appropriate body is set up by the FCT administration.

    It was also noted by the lawmakers that extortion and forcefully locking up people’s businesses may lead people to self-help.

    The lawmakers advised that tax must be structured by relevant authorities saddled with the responsibility of tax administration and that Nigerians have the right to know who they are paying the tax to.

    The House also resolved that its investigation must also determine why the illegality has been been going on.

  • Abuja becoming 24-hour city

    After 9pm in most cities across the country, residents retire to bed. Well, not so in Lagos, and it is becoming clear that Abuja is joining the non-sleeping towns.

    The nation’s capital bustles with nightlife. Clubs hum through the night with patrons happy to deny themselves sleep for fun.

    Now, it is not only the partying crowd that is staying awake; shoppers are waking up in the middle of the night and proceeding to the shops for some household items and more. That is because 24-hour shopping is taking root in the city.

    Twenty-four-hour shopping is gradually becoming a welcome development for residents of the FCT. In Maitama and Wuse II, closing shop for the night is becoming a thing of the past as 24 hours service is now in great demand by customers.

    Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Metromart, a supermarket located in the heart of Wuse II Chief Chima Iwuanyanwu said, “We believe that the time we are in is when people are looking for where to buy food and things to eat and not the time to buy cars or some luxury items but the time for basic necessities. We have looked at this environment and realised that there were big shops all over the place but we needed a shop that will be close to the people and we intend for it not to be a profiteering venture, we believe in minimal profit and that the volume of sales is basically what makes the business profitable.

    “Ours is homely and we stock up with things necessary for residents; it is a 24-hour shopping experience, residents are free to wake up in the midnight and come shopping, we brought it to Wuse II so it is very close to people.”

    A customer at Metromart who identified herself as Mary Moses said that she now enjoys her night outings with the opportunity of 24 hours shopping experience close to her hangouts.

    “Formerly when you hung out and felt like going out to buy something outside the club, you realised that all the shops were closed, most of the shops close as early as 10pm and customers are stuck with no access to most of the things they need at night but with this right now, my friends and I and confident to hang out now and all I do is run across to Metromart or the pharmacies around that now operate 24 hours when we need it, it is really good and a great business strategy for them.”

     

  • Buhari and 2019

    Some ardent supporters of President Muhammadu Buhari must have been shaken up by the outburst of Alhaji Buba Galadima, a fortnight ago.

    Galadima, who was one of the close allies of President Buhari and who worked with him in the 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015 general elections, had claimed that Buhari could be standing alone at the end of his first tenure in 2019.

    According to him, Buhari may not have a platform to run for re-election if he decides to recontest in 2019 going by the crisis rocking the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that brought him to power.

    But the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, wasted no time to reply Galadima last week Monday.

    He declared that the masses will still queue solidly behind his principal in 2019.

    In a statement titled ‘Buhari won’t be alone in 2019′, he described Galadima’s suggestions that the masses will desert President Buhari in 2019 as unfounded and utterly ridiculous.

    He said, “President Muhammadu Buhari is far from isolation. He enjoys a very strategic relationship with ordinary Nigerians. This relationship is as solid as the proverbial rock.

    “If Buba Galadima thinks that because he has no role and no job in this government that means president is isolated he is putting himself up to ridicule.”

    But it’s important to note that the masses on the street will eventually have to decide where their support will go as the election year 2019 approaches.

    In doing this, they will carry out independent appraisal of the administration.

    They will want to review how the administration has improved their lives in the first tenure.

    By the end of the first four years, they will also want to see a strong Nigerian economy fully diversified into agriculture, solid minerals and other key sectors in line with the promises of the administration.

    The adverse effects of the high inflation rate in the country, pushed up by the increase of fuel price from N86 per litre to N145 and high exchange rate of the naira to a dollar, must be reversed through sound policies in the coming months.

    But the good thing is that the administration still has over two years to fulfill its promises of change to Nigerians.

    Even as the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) third quarter figures last week Monday showed poor performance against second quarter figures, the government was confident that things are looking up and that the fourth quarter will be better than the third.

    Speaking to State House correspondents last Wednesday, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, said that the non-oil sector improved in most encouraging direction to the government.

    “Agriculture continues to growth at 12.5 percent, solid minerals continue to grow at seven percent. We are encouraged by the direction that the non-oil sector is moving.

    “Even for the oil sector, because oil production has started moving up as a result of a lot of initiatives that this government has been taking.” He said

    It is the hope of most Nigerians, who have been at the receiving end, that the improvements will soon start to materialize and have bearing on their lives and well-being.

    When the nation is on the path of growth on all indices and Nigerians are better off than the beginning of the administration, the masses on the street will not only root for Buhari, but massively mobilize for him in 2019.

     

    Reducing unemployment

    After weeks of delay the Federal Government last week announced that first batch of 200,000 unemployed graduates will start work on Thursday 1st of December, 2016.

    They are the first set of the plan by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to hire 500,000 unemployed Nigerian graduates.

    The programme, under the N-Power Volunteer Corps, is said to be an expression of President Buhari’s commitment to invest in the human capital development of Nigerian citizens, particularly the young people.

    The N-Power programmme is also an innovation meant to enhance ailing public services in the area of basic education and primary healthcare.

    It also aims to achieve self-sufficiency in the agriculture sector by ensuring farmers get relevant advisory services to boost their yields.

    The first batch of 200,000 graduates comprise of 150,000 that would be deployed to teaching, 30,000 will work in the agriculture sector while 20,000 will serve in healthcare delivery.

    They would be sent to the 36 state governments of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which will in-turn deploy them to their specific programme assignments.

    Each of the graduate is to earn N30,000 monthly throughout the duration of the assignment presently fixed for two years.

    Beside rendering the services at the grassroot level where they would be posted, the graduates are also expected to learn the skills that will brighten their future.

    While this first 200,000 might be seen as a drop in an ocean considering the high rate of unemployed graduates in the country, it is definitely a good start.

    Time should not be wasted now to complete necessary processes and fill the balance of 300,000 spaces for unemployed graduates under the programme.

    It should also hasten steps to generate more employment in other sectors, while ensuring  open and transparency in all the processes.

  • ‘Pay for our demolished shops’

    ‘Pay for our demolished shops’

    As the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) demolishes 378 shops, owners plead for compensation, reports GBENGA OMOKHUNU

    Again the bulldozers have moved in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and again the people whose facilities were destroyed have cried out.

    This time the demolition took place at Dei-Dei Tundun Fulani Pantaker Market where 378 shops were pulled down.

    It is a development with which residents of the nation’s capital and even beyond are familiar. The affected shopowners did not seem to be ready for any confrontations beyond asking for some compensation so that they could move on with their lives and businesses.   Since the demolition they have been finding life difficult, not knowing where to turn for assistance.

    The chairman of Pantaker Market Association Dei Dei Tudun Fulani Abuja, Alhaji Shehu Aliyu and its Secretary Manir Bello in a joint statement issued on the development and made available to Abuja Review said shop owners were not given fair hearing before carrying out the demolition exercise.

    They are begging the Minister of FCT, Malam Mohammed Bello to compensate them to enable shop owners start business somewhere else.

    The statement reads in part: “We the above named association hereby call on the attention of the minister of Federal Capital Territory, Malam Mohammed Bello in view of the recent demolition exercise carried out by the officials of the FCT administration in Dei-Dei Tundun Fulani Pantaker Market in which almost 378 shops were being demolished without giving us any fair hearing in line with fundamental right protection, despite that we have being duly reallocated from defunct new market to our new site Tundun Fulani Dei-Dei by the then Minister of FCT, Malam Nasiru El-Rufai including all the statutory allocation letters that is renewable after every five years in line with the requirement of the Abuja metropolitan management agency.

    “So, please, Minister, we are appealing to your good offices as a matter of justice, equity and fairness. We are demanding full compensation from FCT administration so that we can start our business somewhere else because most of us have been  crippled economically which also affected our family.

    “We are calling on you Sir, to set up a committee to checkmate certain unpatriotic acts in your administration because we have discovered that some individuals want to scuttle down this change that Nigerians are desiring for which God has granted.”

     

  • ‘Schools need skills in curriculum’

    In a bid to address the never-ending unemployment situation in the country, the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) chairman of Ladela Schools, Abuja, Dr Joshua Usman has said the way out is to inculcate entrepreneurship skills into schools from basic level.

    Usman said this at the inter-house sports competition of the school, adding that the educational system in Nigeria has suffered so many setbacks as a result of change of government and policy somersaults.

    But he assured that unemployment can be taken care of with a bit of modification.

    He said sporting activities in schools should be encouraged and made to be a huge annual event as it keeps humans mentally alert, with the ability of creating the opportunity to sleep very well as well as creating friendship and bond.

    “The educational system in Nigeria generally, has suffered some challenges. The challenges I have noticed personally is policy somersault, you bring one minister today and he brings in a new policy, you bring in one government today and it brings another policy. We went through reform system in those days and it was said we were running the American system. I believe there should be a little bit modification in our educational system. We can introduce entrepreneurship and learning the arts. I believe government is looking into it now by improving the quality of teaching and the policies being brougt into place to promote better quality education.”

    “If entrepreneurial skills are inculcated in the educational system. The issue of unemployment would have been taken care of. ýIf they are taught this from secondary school and how to think outside the box, that will be very great.”

    “I remember how I used to represent my school from plateau state in other parts of the country. Then school sports was a yearly event and we go from one state capital to another. I remember when I was in Owerri for the first time as a result of school sports.”

    “We have a great potential but we are not tapping into it. Sport is very important as it keeps us mentally alert, it gives us the opportunity to sleep very well and too interact properly. It creates friendship and bonding between people.”

  • N40m solar power for Kuje Prisons

    The Nigeria Prison Service (NPS) has said that the Kuje Medium Prison is in need of several facilities.

    The Controller of Prison in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Daniel Odharo, who made the disclosure when the Rotary International Club Abuja Metro, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) visited to donate drugs, library shelves and football materials to the inmates, appealed to well-meaning Nigerians to imitate the Club’s gesture to cushion the lives of the inmates occasioned by the challenges.

    Speaking while appreciating the efforts of the club, CP Odharo, admitted that the visit and the items brought will improve the lives of the prison inmates, describing it as a significant gesture that should motivate other Nigerians.

    He enumerated the challenges facing the prison, describing the visit as a good gesture to motivate other Nigerians.

    He said, “The visit will go a long way to show their love for the prison inmates. It is significant because their coming will bring to light the needs of the prison service for people to know that the inmates still face so many challenges. The visit will open more opportunities to receive more interventions from others outside.”

    Speaking earlier, the Club’s president, Robert Itawa, assured that the perennial power problem at the Kuje Prison will soon be a thing of the past as the club will bankroll a N40 million project to provide solar power to all the inmates cells.

    Itawa, who led his members to donate books, sports, drugs/medical items worth over N3 million to the inmates of the Kuje Prison, noted that the club decided to embark on the project to tackle the power challenge facing the prison inmates.

    According to him; “It is a fact that power is a major challenge in the country but we recognized that the situation in Kuje prison is a peculiar one. We brought a team of professionals to visit the prison and we have also carried out the cost analysis and right now, we have put in a together proposal to enable us raise the money at the range of N40 million to provide solar energy to all the inmates cells.

    “The solar energy project will equally cover the prison clinic which will help in the preservation of the drugs. Apart from the cells and clinic, we project will also provide energy to the Open University Centre for Learning inside the prison. We believe strongly that the inmates will have a better deal with the project,” he said.

    While quantifying the monetary value of the intervention, the club has provided to the Kuje Prison inmates, Mr Robert said: “What we brought to Kuje today was in the range of N3 million comprising items like drugs, medicals, books, library shelves, football materials and mowing machine for the pitch we re-grassed for the inmate footballers.

    “It is a rolling thing because our club has annually partnered with the prison to ensure that the inmates are given better life. As I said earlier, we are also going to bankroll the big project of providing solar power to the inmates,” he said.

     

  • ‘Most school security men are mere gatemen’

    It has been observed at a security workshop that inadequate checks in schools is to blame for the rising cases of abductions of pupils since the Chibok episode over two years ago. GBENGA OMOKHUNU reports

    Since the abduction of the Chibok girls on the night of April 14, 2014,  there have  been sessions of talkshops  offering ways on how schools could be better secured. But even as those sessions lasted, criminals’s appetite for abductions did not abate.

    Earlier this year some female students of the Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary School, Ikorodu, Lagos were kidnapped in the school premises, making it a second occurrence this year after the abduction of some students of the Lagos State Model College, Igbo Nla in Epe, Lagos, where the school principal was also abducted. They all have been released.

    Security operatives and the National Commandant of the Peace Corps of Nigeria (PCN), Ambassador Dickson Akoh at a training workshop on schools safety and security spoke extensively on how schools in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja can maintain safety.

    It has been said, among other things, that those hired as  schools’l security men are mere gatemen.

    Akoh said security arrangements put in place in schools by government are not adequate.

    “When we do not commit much in terms of peace to secure our schools the outcome will be very devastating. For us the security arrangements put in place in schools are inadequate. We have conducted our findings to the United States of America (USA) and Brazil and from the moment parents or guardians bring their children to school and hand them over to the school authorities,” Akoh said.

    He also advised private school authorities to be conscious of where the child is, adding, “Most of the people they engage in schools to provide security are not security men but those meant to open gates and they are not trained.

    “I am delighted to be part of this all important workshop and more so, as a presenter. In similar fashion, I also consider it worthy to commend the efforts of the organizers of this workshop and for finding Peace Corps of Nigeria as a worthy stakeholder in School Security Management.

    “Studies have shown that students who do not feel safe at school stay at home and when they are not in school, they do not perform well academically. Schools designed to be a centre for learning should be safe, secured and peaceful but in a situation where the school premises appear unsafe for learning, students will always be reluctant to go to school. Generally speaking, no child will succeed academically if they don’t first feel safe in the school environment. In the same vein, a teacher will not teach at his best if there is no plan to ensure the school is prepared for emergencies.

    “In advanced countries of the World such as the United States of America, concerted efforts are made to formulate and implement policies that ensure provision of comprehensive security in schools on the basis of students brought to school and their new guardian becoming one of their teachers and, or also members security staff within the school system.”

    Having adequate security arrangement, Akoh said, is a great way to help reduce insecurity problems in Nigerian schools: “Recent national tragedies of abduction of students especially as being witnessed in the Northeastern Nigeria where well over 200 schoolgirls were abducted by insurgent group, have placed school security at the top of the priority list for many States.

    “It is instructive to further recommend that religious leaders should preach against violent acts in their respective communities. Reports have it that almost 50 per cent of students are prone to various degrees of violence either towards their fellow students or teachers. Therefore, it is imperative to encourage school administrators to accept and encourage the activities of specially trained and equipped Organizations such as Peace Corps of Nigeria to be part of their School system and bring their professionalism to bare in the area of discipline.

    “Insecurity in our country has seriously retarded learning and in most cases, stopped conventional education activities. In the North-eastern Nigeria, suicide bombings targeted at youths have directly put teachers, students and schools in the line of fire. Lack of proper security network has cast even a more serious pall on the situation, yet it is impossible to gauge the exact impact of insecurity on education because no one including the Government has statistics of the number of schools or educational settings operating in the country under attack or ever been attacked.

    “Without effective security networks or credible media that can track and speak definitively about the security environment, parents and students are forced to assess their risk based on rumors and incomplete information. Due to limited reporting, very limited number of attacks are reported and people fear the worst,” said Horia Mossadeq, of Human Rights Research and Advocacy Consortium which has investigated the state of Afghanistan’s educational system for several years. For example, the Afghani Independent Human Rights Commission investigated rumours in Mazar-e Sharif about the kidnapping of students in 2004 and 2005 and found only one incident in that city. Local investigators with the Afghani Independent Human Rights Commission believed that local individuals opposed to education magnified the incident in order to discourage school attendance. In another example, the mother of five girls attending school in Kandahar explained how she keeps her daughters at home due to incomplete security information. In her words, “…there is no official announcement but the community talks about a situation getting worse so we stop them from going…”

     

  • New gateway to the Villa

    After many years of installation, Sagem Morpho-Access security gateways are finally becoming operational in the Presidential Villa.

    The glass auto-gateways project, first installed at different locations in the Villa during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, was not completed. The gateways were programmed to open at the approach of anyone, but that is changing now as only duly authorised staff and visitors will be allowed to gain access to the President’s and Vice President’s offices’ wings and other key offices and facilities in the State House.

    With final touches and coding going on, the identification system is expected to be fully operational this week.

    The global identification system has fingerprint access control, time and attendance terminal.

    The glass gateway is expected to open only when a duly authorised staff’s fingerprint is scanned and identified by the machine. The gateway will not open if the machine could not identify the person’s biometrics on its database.

    Their rapidity and networking capabilities have been deployed to address security applications from one-door control to protection of buildings, vast infrastructures and government agencies across the globe.

    The system, which has been installed with accurate fingerprint sensor, is expected to be very fast and hitch-free.

    It is expected to be as fast as between 0.7 and 0.9 seconds in the identification mode, carrying out detection, coding and matching at the same time.

    When a duly accredited staff places his or her index finger on the fingerprint panel, the machine’s monitor instantly displays ‘Remove finger analyzing…’, it then shows ‘Welcome’ and the ‘staff’s name’ followed by ‘Identified’ before the glass gateway is momentarily flung open for the staff to pass through.

    When the index finger is not properly placed on the panel, the monitor displays ‘Move up’ asking the staff to properly place the index finger.

    With its multifactor authentication capacity, it can also encode badges and identity tags apart from capturing fingerprints.

    This means that beside the fingerprints scanning, access can also be granted by simply swiping an authorised staff’s identity tag closed to the machine.

    The new system have optronic sensor installed that detects false fingerprints and immediately bar unauthorized staff or visitors from gaining access to the Villa.

    With the capacity to have up to 50,000 users, at any given time, its integration into existing systems is supposed to be easy with in-built Power-Over-Ethernet (POE) and optional wireless LAN communication.

    As the machines are already installed at the pilot gate and many points before the President’s and Vice President’s office doors, a new order is certainly emerging at the seat of power.

    While the machines will now carry out independent and proper screening of staff and visitors to the Villa, the security personnel on duty will now have less to do and just concentrate more on monitoring usage of the machines by staff and visitors and act appropriately whenever any unauthorized person tries to beat the system.

    Apart from identifying anyone carrying a fake identity card, the machines will also restrict movement of some staff not authorized to go beyond a certain point.

    Movements of visitors without proper clearance from the authority will also be checked.

    There is however a way out for security personnel on duty to allow visitors with proper authorization to have access whenever the machine fails to grant such persons access.

    The security personnel at the point of entry can also press a button for the glass gateway to open for state governors and high profile visitors that don’t normally get visitor’s tag at the pilot gate.

    But the machine is going to pose a new challenge to governors’ aides that normally accompany their bosses inside the Villa without visitors’ tags.

    The new identification system will also bring to an end the era where the authority had to deploy security personnel or top management staff to wait at the gate in order to physically seize, for any reason, identity cards of staff it does not want to gain access to the seat of power.

    Just a push of a button, under the new system, deleting the staff’s biometrics from the database in the control room, will bar any staff or visitor from gaining entrance to the Villa. Above all, the authorities will always be full of prayers for thunder storm and other troublemakers not to disrupt the smooth operation of the machines.

     

    Sill on the Niger Delta

     

    A new type of challenge is fast rearing its head up against achieving peace and order in the Niger Delta. Various militant groups in the region have continued to bomb and destroy oil pipelines and infrastructures in the past months.

    The greatest challenge now is how to articulate the grievances of the region and for their leaders, elders and the militants to speak with one voice.

    This is very essential, especially as President Muhammadu Buhari has decided to tackle the crisis in the area.

    To this end, Buhari at the beginning of this month received Niger Delta Stakeholders, under the aegis of Pan Niger Delta Forum (PNDF) led by Amanyanabo of Twon Brass Bayelsa State, King Alfred Diete Spiff and elder statesman, Edwin Clarke.

    During that meeting, Buhari had received a 16-point demand from the region. But some militants immediately dissociate themselves from the meeting and continued with bombing of oil and power installations.

    Another group, Niger Delta People’s Congress (NDPC) last Tuesday presented fresh demands to the Presidency.

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had received the new group as President Buhari was away in Morocco attending the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), also known as COP-22.

    The new group said they were representing the whole of the Niger Delta region and the interest of all the militants.

    Their visit to the Villa, they said, was to prioritize the concerns of the people of the region and place them in clearer perspectives than what the first group submitted to the President.

    Another group, Niger Delta Youth Association (NDYA) last Wednesday also faulted the 16-point demand earlier presented to President Buhari by the first delegation.

    Aware of the present predicament, President Buhari in a meeting with U.S Secretary of State, John Kerry, in Morocco last Wednesday admitted that it was difficult bringing the main protagonists of the militancy under one umbrella.

    There is no guarantee that as the President settles down to consider the demands already submitted to him, that another different group(s) will not rush to the Villa with fresh demands.

    Except the region speaks with one voice, there is no doubt that finding a lasting solution to the problems in the area will be difficult to attain.

  • Rough deal for kerosene customers

    Residents have been having quite an ordeal buying kerosene in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), our investigations can reveal.

    The Nation’s investigation at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) mega filling station on Olusegun Obasanjo Way Abuja revealed that the buyers who are mostly women come to queue up at 9am.

    On the queue were about 15 women each with about five yellow 25-liter jerry cans arranged in a not very orderly but eye-catching manner following the ingenuity with which they were tied with ropes.

    The queue endures till 10am when the station officials come to open up for business.

    The customers said that 25 litres of kerosene is sold for N4,600 while the black marketers who hang around the station sell at the rate of N5,500  and above.

    They added that the retailers sell a litre for N200 and above.

    Our correspondent learnt that in some days it is a different story altogether as women become stranded when the station refuses to sell.

    Some of the women, who told The Nation their previous experiences at the station, recalled that there were days that it was closed to customers in order to create artificial scarcity, provide room for price hikes and encourage black marketers to make brisk business.