The Nation Newspaper

Tag: confront

  • Catholic bishops confront Buhari over performance

    Catholic bishops confront Buhari over performance

    Govt tackling challenges, says SGF Mustapha

    Catholic cleric John Cardinal Onaiyekan yesterday lashed out at the Federal Government over its performance.

    But two government officials disagreed with the man of God. Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Boss Mustapha agreed that there were challenges, which he said the government was tackling.

    Besides, Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed said Nigeria is in safe hands, with President Muhammadu Buhari in the driver’s seat.

    The Metropolitan Catholic Archbishop of Abuja said Nigerians deserved better governance.

    Cardinal  Onaiyekan, in a homily delivered at the opening Mass of the first 2018 plenary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), said the nation had slipped to the verge of misery.

    The clergyman said in the last three years, Nigerians had been hearing a lot about change, but got little of it.

    In Cardinal  Onaiyekan’s view, any change in human affairs must necessarily start with a change of heart.

    But Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Boss Mustapha who represented President Muhammadu Buhari, said the government had done its best to address the issues affecting Nigerians.

    Mustapha said the CBCN was the only Christian platform that gave the president a listening ear prior to the 2015 presidential election.

    Mustapha added that the president believed that the CBCN is a strategic partner in building the nation and noted that it has a lot to offer the nation.

    “And for that reason, he remains eternally grateful. And I remember at that engagement, they asked very pertinent questions – direct, bullets to the face. And he provided answers. And because of that reason, he believes that the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria is a strategic partner in the enterprise of growing the Nigeria nation and he believes that they have a lot to offer,” Mustapha said.

    He cited the recent visit of the Catholic bishops to the president and said he was giving the issues they raised priority attention.

    He said the government was on its toes, addressing security challenges. Perpetrators of violent crimes will be made to face the law as the Federal Government is taking measures to stem the tide of insecurity, Boss said.

    Cardinal Onaiyekan said:  ”We do well therefore to remind ourselves of our need for repentance in the way we think, in the things that we do, in our entire attitude to life in ourselves and in our relations with all our neighbours. But this is not only for us who are Christians and Catholics. It is for all men and women of our nation in this era of general confusion and near chaos, anarchy and doom.

    “Yes, our nation is in a state of uncertainty and confusion. A few things are going well in the society and the economy for which we thank God and congratulate our leaders. They tell us that they are doing their best. But a lot still needs to be done and too many problems have been left to fester. Our nation surely deserves far better than it is now getting in terms of good governance, social justice and peace and minimum of well being for our people,” Cardinal Onaiyekan said.

    He recalled that the Buhari administration came into power three years ago with a promise to change Nigeria for better in all aspects, adding that having tried the two major political parties and found neither of them up to the nation’s expectation, the nation is on the verge of despair.

    The former President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said so far the government had spent so much time and energy demonising its predecessor that it seemed to have forgotten its promise of a better life for Nigerians.

    “It has, unfortunately, allowed the initial massive goodwill it enjoyed to be depleted, almost to non-existence. It is no wonder that many Nigerians are looking for a new political organisation that can truly bring about genuine change for the better. Having tried our two major political parties and found none of them up to our expectation, the nation is on the verge of despair,” Cardinal Onaiyekan added.

    He said irrespective of the situation, Nigerians must not allow despair and frustration to overwhelm them, noting that the

    “Another election is fast approaching. We must seize this God-given opportunity to radically change things around. We should no longer allow politics to remain business as usual in the hands of the same gang of speculators and opportunists. We must change the rule of the game, not the faces of the players.

    “Politics is not for miserable people seeking a way out of poverty, nor for selfish business people looking for an easy way to maximise profit by manipulating the system in their favour. Less still is it for the corruptly rich-seeking refuge from just accountability. Rather, it is for altruistic men and women with the talent, conviction and desire to contribute to making our nation a better home for all of us.

    “We must therefore recover the genuine sense of politics as a noble vocation to serve the common good. Nigerians should stop complaining and get involved in the often rough arena of politics. It is only then that a new kind of politics as service to the people will emerge and real change for the better will be achieved.

    The President of the CBCN, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama, told the congregation that the Church’s sermon was not borne out of ill-will, but because the Church wants things to be good for the nation and that when the Church preaches, it is telling the government to go and re-strategise.

    Rev. Kaigama said the Church was not speaking in a disrespectful way, or because it wants to attack or demonise or bring down anybody.

    “We want to inspire you, let you know like John the Baptist, to go and tell authority that this is what is needed, this is what we at the grassroots are saying. When you take it like that, you will even do better.

    “But when you take it with a negative mind, you say, ‘oh, these people hate us, the Catholic Church don’t like us, they attack us all the time’. For God’s sake, if you listen to us, to all we have been saying, our communiqués from 1960 to date have been dealing with social issues and how to improve Nigeria,” Rev. Kaigama said.

    Former Abia State Governor Orji Uzor Kalu maintained that the Buhari administration had done well, particularly in infrastructural development.

    Kalu mentioned the Second Niger Bridge; Enugu-Onitsha Expressway; Enugu-Port Harcourt-Okigwe; Aba-Umuahia Expressway. He said the president was doing everything within his power to salvage the economy.

    Speaking with reporters, Kalu prayed for the good of the country and wished Nigerians well, that they can enjoy the dividends of democracy.

    He said the APC had only been in government for just three years, adding that another party had been in power for 16 years.

    Kalu added that going by the infrastructural development of the APC-led government, the party was on top gear, even as he concluded that the APC has done a lot in three years.

    “This is not media hype. I am not a spokesman for the president. Everybody knows that I speak the truth. APC has done very well. I will take a look at my own side of Nigeria. The Second Niger Bridge is being constructed now; Enugu-Onitsha Expressway is being built now on a very high thickness; Enugu-Port Harcourt-Okigwe; Aba-Umuahia Expressway is on top speed. So, to me, we are on top gear. And other places I have gone, the roads are being constructed,” Kalu said.

    Also at the Mass were All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun and his wife, Victoria; Minister of Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister of Science and Technology Ogbonnaya Onu; Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Audu Ogbeh.

    Former Senate President David Mark and wife Helen; Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong; Apostolic Nuncio to Nigeria Most Revd Antonio Filipazzi; President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Revd Samson Ayokunle; German Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr Bernhard Stephen Schlagneck and Primate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria Dr Samuel Emeka Kanu Uche, among others.

  • 2019: Senate to confront Buhari on order of polls

    2019: Senate to confront Buhari on order of polls

    Lawmakers seek Assembly elections first

    LAWMAKERS are set to dare the Executive on the amendment to the Electoral Act, a senator said yesterday.

    The problem is likely to be the plan to reorder the schedule of elections.

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has placed the presidential election before the Assembly elections, but the Senate and the House of Representatives are planning to change that.

    If President Muhammadu Buhari decides to veto the Bill, “we will know what to do”, Senate spokesman Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi (Niger North) said yesterday.

    Lawmakers want the Assembly elections to come first. The thinking, it seems, is that if Assembly elections come first, the winners may inspire a “bandwagon” effect, which may swing the presidential election.

    In other words, the party with the majority in the National Assembly is likely to carry the day in the presidential election.

    The Senate yesterday said it would push through the amendments after the harmonisation of the versions passed by it and that of the House of Representatives.

    INEC’s schedule of the 2019 elections sticks to the order of elections used in 2015, which places the Presidential and National Assembly elections first. The House of Representatives passed its version of the amendment to the Electoral Act and concurred with the Senate to put the Presidential election last.

    The Senate, which last year passed its own version, immediately set up a panel to meet with the House to agree on a joint position.

    The new bill reordered the order of elections. It places the National Assembly elections as the first in order of elections with the presidential poll coming last.

    The Presidency is believed to be unsettled with that arrangement.

    Abdullahi said: “If you recall, for us in the Senate, as far back as 2016, we had already commenced action in the various amendments and as early as 2017, the Senate had already passed its own version of amendment. And the House of Representatives has just come out with its own version.

    “Immediately they did that, the Senate President announced the conference committee to be chaired by Suleiman Nazif, who is the chairman of INEC so that they can do the harmonisation. So, for us, it is already done.

    “The key issues have been debated and agreed upon. All that is remaining is to bring the two chambers together through the conference committee, which by next week, I want to assure you, will be concluded. Senator Nazif has travelled out of the country. He called me last Thursday and we discussed and I have it on very strong authority, next week, they are surely going to meet.

    “As soon as they meet, the areas of contentions are not much. And I believe they will work together to make sure that we have an agreeable component that Nigerian people will be happy that we are deepening the electoral process.

    “And barring any last-minute issues, I do not think that should take them two weeks. What we did was transparent. INEC was part of it. People with interest were part of it. Since we are passing what is popular, the presidency too should not take time in assenting to it.

    “If the President decides to veto to bill, we will know what to do when we get to that bridge. For now, I do not envisage that extreme situation. This is democracy. I am hoping that we work based on consensus. At the end of the day, we should be able to agree. The interest of Nigerians is paramount and we must not take it for granted.”

    Former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission Prof Chidi Odinkalu said last night that “if it is within the competence and the scope of what the national Assembly can do, I don’t see why not.

    “Nigerians are used to speculating and imputing motives into such moves, which I don’t think is healthy. In many ways, I can also rationalize it, because the presidential election is very huge and requires a lot of logistics. Why don’t we peg those logistics with the parliamentary elections first, before going into the presidential election? Why don’t we perfect the system with the governorship election first, before embarking on the presidential election? It all seems to me to be perfect and rational but sometimes the nature of our speculation is neither rational nor logical.

    Second Republic Presidential Adviser Alhaji Tanko Yakassai said he did not know whether the national assembly’s move is “a good idea or not.”

    He added: But from the point of view of the constitution, it is the responsibility of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to decide the order of elections. I don’t know why the National Assembly is embarking on the exercise to reverse the order of the elections, but let’s see how it works out.”

    Senator Abdullahi also said the Senate had confidence in Senate President Bukola Saraki’s leadership. “Nobody can remove Saraki. We elected him and we are not ready to remove him yet. From day one, they never wanted Saraki. What we are saying is that the right to choose the Senate President lies with senators and we have chosen our leader.”

  • 9/11: US urges Nigerian civilians to confront terrorism

    9/11: US urges Nigerian civilians to confront terrorism

    The Deputy Public Affairs Officer of the United States Consulate, Lagos, Frank Sellin, has reiterated the commitment of the US government to work with Nigeria to combat terrorism and assist internally displaced persons (IDPs) rebuild their lives.

    He spoke at the commemoration of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US held at the multipurpose hall of the Consulate’s Victoria Island Office, Lagos, yesterday.

    Sellin said: “America remains committed to working closely with Nigeria and its neighbours to degrade and defeat Boko Haram; and as we remember America’s 9/11 families, we also remember Nigeria’s survivors. Ambassador James Entwistle has made it clear that the US will continue to work closely with the Nigerian government to assist internally displaced persons rebuild their lives.”

    He urged Nigerians to unite and boldly challenge any threat to their collective peaceful coexistence.

    Among the four aircraft  hijacked by terrorists during the attacks, United Airlines Flight 93 stood out as the only airplane that did not crash into any building, nor hurt anyone on the ground, hence failing to reach its hijackers’ suspected target.

    Instead, it crashed into a field near the Diamond T. Mine in Pennsylvania and everyone on board died.

    Sellin said records of telephone calls made by passengers on the flight, as well as analysis of the flight recorders revealed that its passengers had tried to regain control of the aircraft, which deterred the terrorists’ intent.

    “Untrained and unarmed passengers did not sit cow. They acted. They teamed together and confronted the terrorists. Good, innocent, ordinary people took on the greatest risk any of us could face,” he said.

  • NPFL: Enyimba confront Akwa United

    NPFL: Enyimba confront Akwa United

    First round fixtures of the 2014/2015 Nigeria Professional Football League season shows that People’s Elephant, Enyimba FC will trade tackles with Akwa United of Uyo at the Enyimba International Stadium on March 7.

    Champions Kano Pillars are away to Heartland FC in Owerri while El-Kanemi Warriors, who will still play their home matches in Kano as they did last season, host Nasarawa United FC.

    Top cadre returnees Shooting Stars of Ibadan are away to fellow returnees Wikki Tourists in Bauchi while Sunshine Stars visit Sharks FC in Port Harcourt and Giwa FC are at home to Abia Warriors in Jos.

  • Time to confront economy’s ‘cabal’

    As the country’s political and economic circumstances continue to deteriorate, nobody seems to have the courage to suggest or demand action against those who lead us into the escalating misery of Nigerians. There appears to be a strange kind of timidity that keeps us silent and passive in the face of obvious abuse from which the majority of our countrymen and women suffer. The question is, what makes us so timid? Why have we chosen to be passive in this situation of reckless rape of our well-being by the ruling elite?

    We may never find answers to these questions until we stand up to our rights and be prepared to defend them through peaceful but dynamic engagement with the forces of evil that burden us with misery. Now is the time to awaken from resignation and insist that things should be done differently. The docile nature of the Nigerian masses is adding fuel to the rampage of our leadership elite who are becoming ever more brazen in actions that lead Nigeria down the drain.

    We are particularly concerned about Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala and Sanusi Lamido Sanusi both of who have direct responsibility for the economy, but under whose watch we are experiencing escalating misery in spite of increased earnings from oil. The case against these economic managers is simply that they are pursuing policies which are detrimental to economic growth and public welfare.

    Okonjo-Iweala’s presence on the economic stage in Nigeria is tragic. When she first surfaced in the Obasanjo cabinet, we were told she was the best thing to happen to Nigeria’s economy. But the facts on the ground speak to the contrary. She depleted our dollar reserves to exit the debt trap when she could have done the same thing with oil swap and saved us over $30 billion that she handed over to her principals at the Breton Woods Institution. Now the woman is here again through the roof and is piling up debt and saving our dollar earnings to once again give her IMF/World Bank masters while our people are dying for funds to develop the real sector and do other desperate things to exit poverty, unemployment and the education system collapse calamity we are in.

    The case of Sanusi is just as tragic. Since he swept into power to curb misdeeds in the banking system, our Central Bank governance has never been as erratic. Against rational advice, the CBN chief has continued to place the naira in hopeless difficulties with his never-ending mopping up of naira in circulation in an economy where the real sector is desperate for funds which the banks will hardly give.

    The government has persisted in its bizarre economic approach because of the complacency of the Nigerian masses. They suffer a degree of poverty that is amongst the worst type in the world, and yet they keep not only quiet but they go about like a mesmerized people sleep-walking. And because of this timidity, the government believes that it has the support of Nigerian masses to do what it is doing. At least the minister of information has expressed that disgusting sentiment recently.

    Those of us who are not mesmerized or sleep-walking have a grave responsibility to awaken our people from their lethargy and get them to insist on peaceful change just the same way the Rev. (Dr) Martin Luther King of the USA did for the black peoples of America. One man who has been in the forefront of a similar gigantic battle in Nigeria is Henry Boyo of the Lesleba fame. For over a decade now, this man has been fighting relentlessly for Nigerians to appreciate that their economic problem lies with a devalued currency.

    In a manner similar to Martin Luther King, Boyo has been fighting on the pages of newspapers, in seminars and talks, trying to persuade Nigeria that any country that allows its currency to be devalued, has in effect allowed the life of its citizens to be devalued. He therefore launched a spirited campaign tagged, “Save the Naira, Save Nigeria”. But as is usual with our country, he was ridiculed by those whose complicity in the criminal devaluation of the naira has brought them enormous wealth, while the masses have become impoverished over the decades since the naira was devalued.

    Boyo has been speaking in the last decade with prophetic accuracy that for as long as we do not save the naira from the catastrophe of devaluation, for so long will our economy remain comatose. He has been right and his critics have been wrong. The more this economic expert prescribes solutions to our economic problems – especially in the areas of finance, money management and the growth of the real sector of the economy, the less government and the people in charge care to listen. The situation has become so bad that the country appears to be living in an illusion of progress whilst the masses of its citizens wallow in abject poverty, and practically all its infrastructure and institutions are in varying stages of collapse.

    If those who have been in charge of our economy since 1999 have failed to move Nigeria forward with their policy prescriptions, for God’s sake, why should we continue with those policies, when alternative prescription – which remain credible is ignored while the country and its people suffer? In whose interest is this economic prescription of Okonjo-Iweala and Sanusi designed? Certainly, the political and business leadership elite of the country are feeding fat on it. The Breton Woods Institution – which by the way is entrenched in government in Abuja – has more than an ordinary interest in keeping Nigerian resources within its orbit of control to exploit, regardless of the effect on our citizens. They post growth figures in the economy, which only translate to suffering and misery in despicable poverty for the Nigerian masses.

    Nigerians have no choice but to fight their way out of the satanic misery imposed on them by a financial system that continues to impoverish them in spite of the enormous wealth of the country which the leadership elites in business and politics have appropriated to themselves in one of Africa’s (if not the world’s) most tragic manifestation of misery in the midst of wealth.

    There is a limit to which any human being should endure enslavement. Increasingly we are being enslaved by the ruling elites and their collaborators in our financial institutions. What belongs to all of us has been appropriated by them and our people are in painful poverty in the midst of wealth. Our silence and docility are now being construed by the heartless leadership as a sign of approval and satisfaction. Yes, in their sadism, they could be right. We are the ones who should prove them wrong.

    • Obafemi and Ojewale promoters of Leadership Search Initiative sent this mail from thelsinitiative@gmail.com