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Tag: BUHARI

  • Aondoakaa commends Buhari over rice policy 

    Former Attorney – General of the Federal and Minister of Justice ( AGF), Chief Mike Aondoakaa, has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for favouring rice farmers in his agriculture policy . Aondoakaa, who is a rice farmer with a milling plant in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, said the rice policy of President Buhari has brought more money to farmers .”Rice farmers in the country are happy with Mr. President. They are producing enough paddy to feed the plants and meet local demand,’ he said.

    He expressed gratitude to Buhari for the Central Bank Anchor borrowers programme which he stated has really boosted rice production in the country, even for export. On the smuggling of rice into the country, the former Minister of Justice noted that the Controller-General  of Customs (CGC) is leaving up to expectation and tackling the smugglers head long.

    “If you listen to news, you will discover that custom officers have impounded many trailer-loads of rice across the country. This is an indication that things are going on well with rice farmers in the country.” He said unlike last year, his milling plant in Makurdi has enough paddy and assured that there would be enough rice for the yuletide .

     

  • Group vows to mobilise votes for Buhari

    THE Buhari/Osinbajo Continuity 2019 Organisation wants all campaign groups involved in the Presidential campaign to eschew bitterness and hate speech in the campaigns and preach peace throughout the campaign, promising to deliver 16 million votes to the President in the 2019 election.

    The group said it planned to embark on a door to door campaign to ensure the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari.

    National Coordinator of the Group, Ayuba Birma who spoke at a news conference in Abuja also asked all candidates participating in the general elections to play by the rules, by avoiding campaigns that promote hatred or preach intolerance and disunity among fellow Nigerians.

    While calling for total support for the President to take Nigeria to the next level, Birma vowed that his group will expose those involved in vote buying which he described as undemocratic, while asking the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to remain impartial and ignore all insinuations of the opposition and work assiduously towards a free, fair and credible election.

    He said security agencies must be prepared to discharge their responsibilities with utmost professionalism, as they did in the last elections and asked other Buhari Support Groups to join hands to deliver on their mandate to ensure the re-election of President Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

    He said the Presidential Fertilizer initiative has resulted in revitalisation of 14 blending plants across the Country with total installed capacity in excess 2 million MT.

    A former Minister of Education Prof. Nora Obaji said they were working for the re-election of the President because of what he has achieved since assuming office.

    She said “We are here because we believe in Mr. President and the work that he is doing. We are here out of our conviction that the President and Vice President needs a second term to lead this country completely out of economic, political, and security crisis.”

  • Restructuring: Buhari should set the tone for debate, says Dickson

    Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State has challenged President Muhammadu Buhari to set the tone for the debate on the restructuring of the country.

    The president, Dickson said, should deploy the “power, influence and authority of that office to mobilise our country to do the restructuring.”

    He spoke  at the launch of a book, “We are all Biafrans” written by  a human rights activist, Chido Onumah  in Abuja.

    Dickson expressed disappointment that Buhari has not lived up to expectation on the restructuring issue.

    “I regret to say that I feel disappointed that the president didn’t rise to the occasion. It’s a tragedy for our country and also a major tragedy for his own leadership,” he said.

    He also told agitators of a republic of Biafra that it is not feasible, saying it is too late to break Nigeria or allow secession agitation to thrive.

    He asked those demanding for the Republic of Biafra to forget the dream.

    But he said it is time for the restructuring of the country to ensure justice and equality for all.

    He said: “If we are all Biafrans is about the tendency of any part of that country that wants to move out, I don’t believe in that path. I will therefore say that we are all Nigerians.  We disavowed the geographical Biafra, our country does not need it.

    “Let us be very clear, this is our country. No one owns this country than the other. I will rather want to join forces to fight for the new Nigeria this country needs. We need a new Nigeria for the weak and the strong; an egalitarian Nigeria; a nation of justice and equal opportunities. But not the idea of balkanizing. We are not going to leave this country.

    “We should however not run away from the issues raised in the book. If all is well, no one will talk of moving out.

    “These days, people are scared of holding views or position. I don’t know what you are doing in public space if you cannot express your views.

    “What did our founding fathers do that we are failing to do. They sat down, dialogued, disagreed, sometimes walking out of conferences, all those are political tools.

    “We shouldn’t be afraid of disagreeing. In fact, we need more disagreement. But the important thing is whether we agree or disagree should be in national interest.”

    Dickson said Nigeria is ripe for restructuring in order to make progress.

    “With the way it is, our country is not structured to work.  Instead of talking about issues that will bring development, people bring up issues about our fault lines.

    “We need restructuring. This election will be a referendum on restructuring. We cannot continue to run Nigeria in this manner.”

     

  • Group promises Buhari 30 million votes

    A group, The Liberty Movement of Nigeria has said it will mobilised over 30 million Nigerians to vote President Muhammadu Buhari for next year’s election.

    The group national coordinator, Sola Ajayi who spoke to The Nation, said the country would be better if Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo were re-elected.

    He added that the country was in great development deficit when the president was elected to office in 2015, noting that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) inflicted lots of pain on Nigeria for 16 years.

    Ajayi said the current suffering Nigerians were facing was due to the corruption perpetuated by previous administrations.

    He said: “We in the Liberty movement have adopted him. We shall mount intensive campaigns for him. We are impressed by certain  achievements of President Buhari and Osinbajo.

    “His anti corruption drive has recorded about 700 convictions. Buhari and Osinbajo have national coordinator integrity which Nigerians across all strata can attest to.

    Ajayi noted that the administration has recorded remarkable improvement of the economy, stressing that the impact are beginning to be manifested across the country.

    “The Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) being coordinated by the CBN has issued assistance to the tune of N82 billion with 35,000 farmers expressing their success stories.

    “We are impressed are impressed by the railway  project of the administration. You may be aware of the newly approved railway projects linking international routes.

    He said the group had constituted a 21-member Central Working Committee, to ensure the success of the mobilisation efforts from till when the elections are held.

    “Our mission is to ensure victory for Buhari with wide margin, the highest in the history of conducting election in the country.”

  • Igbo youths to Buhari, Atiku: don’t rely on politicians for support in S’East

    THE leadership of ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council (OYC) Worldwide, and other Igbo youth groups have advised President Muhammadu Buhari and Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Alhaji  Atiku Abubakar, not to rely on the promises of South East politicians to get the support of Ndigbo in the forthcoming  election.

    In a communiqué issued after a meeting with the coalition of Biafra agitators and coalition of Igbo groups on the  2019 presidential election,  the OYC president, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, said: “The joint session of OYC, Biafra agitators and other  groups namely; Southeast Women Professionals, World Igbo Youth Council and Igbo Youth Movement, unequivocally want to state that both frontline presidential candidates of PDP Atiku Abubakar and  President Buhari may  get less than 10 per cent  of Igbo votes because of total neglect and  deceit from the political elites who are giving false hope and wrong impression that they are in charge, but they will be disappointed about the outcome.

    They have taken the youths, women and Biafra agitators for granted and it will spell doom for them in the forthcoming election. “We have monitored the deceitful politicians and understand  that they want to engage in vote buying to subvert the wishes of the people of the southeast ahead of the 2019 presidential election. We are aware of the moves by those politicians to deceive the people. What their principals should know is that , the so called politicians are no longer on the ground regarding Southeast politics. “The joint session agreed that Atiku Abubakar should clearly come out and reach agreement of one term with Igbo  leaders who have the confidence of the coalition before 31st December or he should forget Igbo votes. President Buhari should as a matter of urgency also reach out to Igbo leaders that he will handover to an Igbo man in 2023.”

  • Group commends Buhari over 2019 budget

    The Buhari  Osinbajo Hope Movement ( BOHM) on Thursday lauded President Muhammadu Buhari over the proposed budget of N8.83 trillion for 2019.

    The National Coordinator of the BOHM, Seyi Bamigbade, who stated this while receiving members of the Atiku Grassroots Foundation in Abuja into their fold, noted that the size of the budget and the areas of priority mirrored in the budget showed the determination of the Buhari led government to boost the economic prosperity of the country.

    Bamigbade said he listened to the presentation of the 2019 budget by President Buhari and found it to be full of hope and development.

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    He said: “The budget presented by the president shows that the proposed recurrent expenditure is N4.04 trillion, statutory transfer is N492.36 billion, there is a sinking fund of N120 billion, while capital expenditure is N2.031 trillion.

    “The president has done very well and that is why we are seeking his re-election. Many other groups have come to join us in this quest to mobilize for votes for him. I believe by the time N2.031 trillion is further expended on capital development, all of us will see the development and transformation of the country.’’

    Bamigbade condemned the unparliamentary conduct of some members of the National Assembly at the presentation of the 2019 appropriation bill by President Muhammadu Buhari.

  • Minimum wage: FG pleads with NLC over ultimatum

    The Federal Government on Friday urged the Nigeria Labour Congress ( NLC ) to discard the Dec. 31 ultimatum issued over lingering disagreement between organised labour and state governments on the proposed N30,000 national minimum wage.

    The Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, made the appeal while speaking with State House correspondents after a closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    The organised labour had on Thursday gave the ultimatum following President Muhammadu Buhari’s statement that a “high powered technical committee” would be set up to device ways to ensure that implementation of new minimum wage would not lead to an increase in the level of borrowing.

    The president stated this on Wednesday when he presented the 2019 Appropriation Bill of N8.83trillion at the joint session of the National Assembly.

    However, the President of the NLC, Mr Ayuba Wabba, who addressed newsmen on Thursday, expressed organized labour’s reservation over President Buhari’s position, saying that setting up a technical committee could not be a condition for passing the minimum wage report to the National Assembly.

    “We reject in its entirety the plan to set up another `high powered technical committee’ on the minimum wage. It is diversionary and a delay tactics.” he had stated

    But Lai, who described the NLC as “a very patriotic union”, said he was confident the organized labour would not do anything that would embarrass the government or Nigerians.

    He said: “The Nigeria Labour Congress is a very patriotic union and I am very confident that they will not do anything that will embarrass the government or do anything that is going to worsen the situation.

    “Continuous engagement I think is the key, we will continue to engage them and I think they do also fully understand what the challenges are, and both parties are determined to ensure that a common ground is arriving at which will be comfortable for all.” he said

    The minister, who briefed President Buhari on the activities of his ministry on Friday, said he made a portrait of the President in five major Nigerian attires, “one is in Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Efik and one in suit.

    “It is reminiscent of the portrait we use during this campaign.’’

    On Senate President Bukola Saraki’s comment on 2019 budget proposal which was presented by President Buhari at a joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday, the minister said it was not the practice of the executive to be exchanging words with other arms of government.

    “It is not the practice of the executive to be exchanging words with the legislative arm of government, they are independent, we are independent but to the best of our knowledge, we presented a budget given the circumstances of our resources this year.

    Read Also: Labour rejects proposed technical committee on minimum wage

    $We feel that is the best we can. It is left for the National Assembly to consider it,’’ he said.

    Saraki had on Thursday asked Nigerians not to expect much from the 2019 Appropriation Bill, describing the budget proposal as hopeless.

    The minister also noted that the Buhari administration had delivered on its promises to Nigerians.

    “We are happy that we have been able to meet all our promises, all our obligations to Nigerians.

    “And as the year rolls out, we are more determined to even to deliver more to Nigerians.

    “I wish to use this opportunity to wish everybody Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.’’ he added.

  • Buhari warns Police against torture, extra-judicial killings

    President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday warned the police to desist from acts that could pit them against the society.

    The President, in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and publicity, Garba Shehu,  said unprofessional conducts such as illegal detentions, extrajudicial killings, torture and violation of fundamental human rights were unacceptable and must be avoided by the Nigeria Police Force at all times.

    He gave the directive in his address at the convocation and passing out parade of the First Regular Cadet Course at the Police Academy, Wudil, Kano State.

    “We must abide by the constitutional code of conduct in policing our people.

    “The Police in its efforts to fight crime must work in partnership with the community. You cannot properly police the people without their consent,” he told the 602 graduating officers.

    President Buhari also used the occasion to remind the police officers to shun corruption and resist all temptations that impede the integrity and professionalism of the Force.

    He said: “It is appropriate to warn you as Police Officers not to see yourselves as being above the Law.  You must be above board and resist all temptations. Be contented with your salaries and allowances.

    “The government recently increased your general emoluments to make you more efficient and effective in the discharge of your duties. With this increase in your salaries, you have less reason to fall into temptations of financial or other inducements.

    “Let me again reiterate that this administration has zero tolerance for corruption. Corruption is the major reason why the Nigerian economy has not developed at the rate of other comparable countries.

    “If we must develop and reap the fruits of our democratic dispensation we must shun corruption at all levels. It is, therefore, your responsibilities and other anti-corruption agencies to kill corruption before Corruption overtakes Nigeria.”

    Commending the police for the successes it has recorded in the fight against various aspects of crime in the country, the President acknowledged that they had worked closely with the military in the fight against Boko Haram in the Northeast.

    He said: “I am aware that you have just deployed over 2000 Police Officers including Special Forces to the North East to support the efforts of the military.

    “The success recorded in the fight against Boko Haram in the Northeast cannot be related without mentioning the support you are giving to the military. The group is no longer occupying any Nigerian territory as it used to before the advent of this administration.

    “The recent attacks by the Boko Haram group can be likened to attempts of defeated insurgents to re-organise its ragtag and scattered individuals. This, however, will not be possible as adequate strategic plans have been put in place in conjunction with our neighbouring countries to completely wipe out the group.”

    On next year’s elections, President Buhari reiterated that it is the duty of the police, supported by other security agencies to adequately secure the elections.

    He said: “You must do everything possible to make the election violence free to avoid ballot box snatching, multiple voting, vote buying on sites, attack on electoral officers and other acts which might negatively impact on the elections and their outcome.”

    At the event were Governors Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano) and Mohammed Badaru Abubakar (Jigawa) as well as Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris and other senior police officers.

  • Amosun’s loyalists endorse Buhari as APM begins campaigns

    Loyalists of Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun yesterday kick-started the campaign of the Allied People’s Movement (APM) in Abeokuta, the state capital.

    They handed the party’s emblem to the party’s governorship candidate, Adekunle Akinlade.

    Other candidates of the party for various electives offices also got their flags as APM candidates.

    The party’s National Chairman Yusuf Dantale   led the campaign kick-off at the MKO Abiola Stadium.

    APM also declared President Muhammad Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as its adopted presidential candidate for next year’s presidential poll.

    Addressing the rally attended by transport unions and association’s drawn from across the state, Dantale said it was a collective decision to adopt President Buhari.

    Curiously, the national chairman presented the party’s flag to Akinlade with instruction to pass it on to the President, who the party said was impressed with his performance.

    Akinlade collected the flag on behalf of President Buhari, assuring the party that he would hand it over to him through the state APC Chairman Chief Derin Adebiyi, and Governor Amosun.

    The APM candidate justified his defection from APC, saying it was driven by the need to forestall plans by some forces to truncate the achievements and legacies of Governor Amosun.

    He described his new party as a new movement which would fight for freedom and ensure welfare of the people.

    Akinlade said: “We kick-start this campaign to continue the good work of Governor Amosun. We have enough resources and they should be used for the welfare of the people.

    “Ogun people have the right to choose their leaders without the input of anyone outside the state.”

    The Director-General of Abdulkabir Akinlade Campaign Organisation, Tunji Sarafa Ishola, said the state needed continuity in governance.

    He added: “We need continuity in Ogun State and that continuity and orderly succession residing in our son and candidate, Abdulkabir Akinlade.

    “APM has decided to adopt President Buhari. In APM, we have adopted Senator Amosun as senatorial candidate in Ogun Central.

    “We don’t have a senatorial candidate in Ogun East and we have adopted Lekan Mustapha as our candidate. Other candidates will be discussed later.”

     

  • ‘Buhari can’t be deceived’

    A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in  Ogun State, Tunde Oladunjoye has described the endorsement of President Muhammadu Buhari by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) in Ogun State, as a comical show and a Greek gift for which the President and the party cannot be deceived.

    In a statement last night,  Oladunjoye said those behind the “purported endorsement” are “hiding behind one finger” to reap where they did not sow”: let me tell you clearly that these characters are aware of the popularity of Mr. President and they want to catch-in on that to promote their infant-party. Good enough, our dear President cannot be deceived by their duplicitous antics”.

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