Category: Northern Reports

Kwara Governor Abdulrahman AbdulRazaq on Thursday launched the disbursement of N50,000 grant each for at least 4,000 Kwara artisans to support their businesses and strengthen the local economy.

“This programme is one of our initiatives to support local industries, talents and SMEs to grow. This prevents job export, strengthens the local economy, reduces poverty rate, and improves living standards in the state,” AbdulRazaq said at the launch in Ilorin, the state capital.

“Before our administration in 2019, Kwara State did not have any structured and legally backed initiative to encourage and support local industries, self-employment, petty trading, and reduce poverty.

“History bears us witness that we are doing that already through the Kwara State Social Investment Programme. We will not drop the ball.”

The administration had in 2020 contracted the production of 500,000 facemasks to the state branch of the Nigerian Tailoring Union to curb the spread of COVID 19, apart from several other supports so far extended to the group.

AbdulRazaq said the artisans are the custodians of various skills and key drivers of sustainable economic growth, adding their inclusion in the intervention will help to encourage skills development and grow the economy.

“What we are doing today takes our policy of inclusive growth to a new height. Artisans are the custodians of various skills and key drivers of sustainable economic growth. Their inclusion in this intervention will therefore help to encourage skills development and grow the economy,” he said.

He congratulated all the beneficiaries and urged them to make good use of the grant for good impacts on the society.

In attendance were cabinet members, other officials of government; labour leaders, and party supporters, including the Acting General Manager for Kwara State Social Investment Programme (KWASSIP), Abdulquowiyu Olododo; Director General State APC Campaign Council Ambassador Abdulfatai Seriki and thousands of artisans.

The acting General Manager for KWASSIP, AbdulQuowiyu Olododo, said 4,000 artisans were carefully selected from 13,000 applicants across the 16 local governments, calling it another giant step toward eradicating poverty in the state.

He commended AbdulRazaq for his leadership quality, his passion for masses, and how he has been supporting the agency to thrive in its given task.

“I must commend the effort of our visionary, committed, and prudent leader, His Excellency Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, who, without him, we wouldn’t have been able to come this far. We say a big thank you, sir,” he said.

President, State Artisans Congress, Alhaji Jimoh Adeshina, appreciated the Governor for his leadership style and how he has been supporting the local artisans in various ways.

Read Also : AbdulRazaq to face five others in Kwara governorship race

He said the current grant of N50,000 each for 4000 artisans was unique and will make a great impact in the lives of the recipients.

“We should be thankful to God for the gift of Governor Abdulrahman AbdulRazaq. The Governor has fulfilled all his promises he made to Kwara artisans during the 2019 campaigns. Importantly, the Governor fulfilled his promise to patronize us if elected to power,” he said.

Adeshina said Kwara artisans cannot quantify the large impacts of support they are getting from the administration, alluding to various programmes that so far benefitted his members.

“During the heat of COVID 19, he contracted our tailoring members to produce all the facemasks for the use of the state. He has also been engaging the locals, who are mostly our members, in the execution of government contracts, thereby helping to return our members who had turned to okada riders because of the low patronage in the past.

“The government has been building schools and hospitals, and constructing roads. Kwara artisans are most of the people working on project sites. Bricklayers, carpenters and tillers among others are benefitting from this. That means we benefit more from this government,” he added.

“Apart from that, the Governor also gives scholarship slots to 50 of our members every year to attend the capacity building programme at the IVTEC to enable us to meet up with the modern standards. Just recently, the Governor gave 400 local artisans scholarships to attend the training and bought working tools for the participants to function properly. All what you are doing has impacts on the masses, but we artisans benefit more. We cannot thank Your Excellency enough,” he added.

The All Progressives Congress(APC) Benue South senatorial candidate. Comrade Daniel Onjeh has received the endorsement of the “Igede In 2023 Movement”. 

The endorsement was the highpoint of an interface between Onjeh and the Movement in Makurdi, Benue State. 

The “Igede In 2023 Movement” is a sociopolitical organisation comprising of Igede elites in academia, business, politics and public service worldwide under the leadership of Dr. Jonah Ogbaji.

A statement by Prince Maxwell Ogiri, the Director of Media of the Onjeh Campaign Organisation, indicated Onjeh affirmed that beyond rhetoric and lip service, there was a need for a legal framework for the rotation of power to accommodate the interests of minority ethnic groups and communities in Nigeria. 

He added that power rotation and full-fledged local government autonomy will be topmost on the agenda of the 10th National Assembly, assuring his Igede kins that if he gets elected into the Senate, he’ll be an integral part of the critical mass of federal legislators that would pursue this worthy cause. 

Onjeh informed his hosts that since the creation of Apa State had become a mirage, it was only through power rotation amongst the three Senatorial Districts of Benue State, that a Benue South citizen may become Governor of the State in the future. 

He noted that given the deplorable state of the roads leading in and out of Igede land, which has literally disconnected the people from the rest of the world, if he were a Senatorial Candidate of the PDP that has held power in Benue South since 1999, he would have buried his face in shame before any Igede person, talk more of having the effrontery to campaign for re-election anywhere in Igede land. He opined that that would amount to a brazen affront on the collective sensibilities and intelligence of the Igede people. 

While soliciting their support for his senatorial ambition, he pleaded with the group to canvass votes for, and to vote for all APC candidates across the board.

Read Also : APC accuses PDP of fueling political violence in Zamfara

He said it was obvious that religion and ethnicity were the least of the problems of the Benue south people, adding that the major problem of the senatorial district was underdevelopment. 

“The Benue South people, though predominantly Christians, are known to be very tolerant of other religions and ethnic groups. We have no history of religious crisis in our place; yet, we have the members of other faiths living amongst us,” noted Onjeh. 

Chairman of the Movement, Dr. Jonah Ogbaji, extolled the leadership qualities of Com. Onjeh, and assured him of the support of the Forum and by implication, the Igede people.

Prominent amongst those present at the meeting were Chief Prof. John Enyi; Prof. Moses Ogbaji; Dr. Sam Ominyi; Rt. Hon. Egbiri Idaah; Engr. Okpe Onah; Hon. Patrick Aruta; Hon. Edor Egboja and a host of others. 

Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje yesterday said history will repeat itself in Kano as the people of the state will reject their own son and vote for a southerner to become president.

In 1993, Kano citizens gave victorious votes to the late Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola – a southerner from Abeokuta, to defeat Bashir Othman Tofa – a northerner from Kano state.

“Kano state will repeat what happened during 1993 presidential election when the state supported a southern candidate and rejected a Kano citizen,” Ganduje said.

The governor spoke during a campaign tour with the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates vying for different positions in the general election.

During the tour, the Ganduje-led APC visited the district head of Kibiya, Sunusi Abubakar Ila, after a rally and consultations in Rano and Bunkure, spending the night in Rano, the headquarter of Rano Emirate.

“We voted for Chief MKO Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and rejected Bashir Othman Tofa of the National Republican Convention (NRC). That showed the political maturity and dexterity of Kano citizens. Because we all believed in national integration and competence,” the governor said.

He reminded Nigerians that the APC Presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmad Tinubu, had supported Northerners on different occasions to win the presidency.

He said: “Tinubu was an instrument behind making Atiku Abubakar become the presidential candidate of Action Congress (AC). He also provided another platform for Nuhu Ribadu to contest for the presidency under the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)”.

As he spoke, the gathering also mentioned that President Muhammadu Buhari was also supported by Tinubu to win the presidency in 2015.

Ganduje said as rotational as it is, the presidential contest in the country, provides that, power rotates between the North and South.

“Asiwaju Tinubu worked hard to maintain the equation, hence, his support for Northern Presidential candidates in the past. One good thing deserves another…”

The Supreme Court will tomorrow deliver judgment in the dispute over the governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Jigawa State.

A five-member panel led by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun adjourned for judgment after taking arguments from parties in the appeal filed by Farouk Adamu Aliyu (former Minority Leader of the House of Representatives) and the cross-appeal by Umar Namadi (the current Deputy Governor of the state).

Aliyu is by the appeal marked: SC/1453/2022 challenging the November 4 judgment by the Court of Appeal (Kano division) dismissing his earlier appeal and upholding Namadi’s election as the governorship candidate of the APC.

A three-member panel presided over by Justice Ita Mbaba, in the November 4 judgement, unanimously dismissed Aliyu’s appeal against the September 13 judgement by Justice Hassan Dikko of the Federal High Court, Dutse, for lacking in merit.

Justice Dikko had, in the judgment, held among others, that Aliyu lacked the locus standi to sue and added that he failed to prove his case with credible evidence.

Namadi is challenging a portion of the Court of Appeal judgment upturning the trial court’s decision that Aliyu lacked locus standi to have filed the suit which did not qualify as a pre-election case.

Adopting his client’s brief yesterday, counsel to Namadi, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) urged the apex court to dismiss the appeal by Aliyu and allow his client’s cross-appeal.

Fagbemi argued that the Appeal Court was wrong to have exercised jurisdiction over Aliyu’s appeal, which arose “from an action improperly constituted.”

Aliyu’s counsel, Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN) argued otherwise and prayed the court to allow his client’s appeal.