The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Governor Tanko Al-Makura

  • Voting Ends in Ekiti APC Guber Primary

    Voting has ended in the Ekiti State All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary.
    Casting of ballots by delegates ended at 4.13 pm.
    Delegates from Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area were the last to exercise their franchise.
    The next exercise to be carried out is sorting which starts any moment from now.
    The Electoral Panel Chairman, Governor Tanko Al-Makura, had just given his remarks.
    There is no delegates inside the hall as they had left save the contestants who are also delegates.
  • Don’t blame Buhari for going back on N5,000 promise – Al-Makura 

    Don’t blame Buhari for going back on N5,000 promise – Al-Makura 

    Nasarawa State Governor, Tanko Al-Makura on Monday urged Nigerians to remain calm and not challenge ‎President Muhammadu Buhari’s refusal to fulfill his government’s pledge of paying N5,000 to unemployment citizens.

    According to him, Buhari reserves the right to change his mind or review the promise based on prevailing realities in the country.

    The President had at the weekend in Saudi‎ Arabia declared that the N5,000 stipend was not on his priority list and that he would rather channel resources into the building of infrastructure, education, agriculture and mining to create employment opportunities for able bodied young men.

    Speaking with State House correspondents after meeting with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Al-Makura said: “The president is the person that can tell you precisely how he is working on promises and interventions that he has created by his ingenuity. And if at any point in time the president is reviewing that issue, I think he is the only person to that because what he is doing is in the best interest of the country. And so, it is not challengeable by anybody whatever his position.”

    Imo State Governor and Chairman of the Progressives Governors’ Forum, Rochas Okorocha, after meeting with the Vice President however said that the promise will be implemented one way or the other.

    He said: “Well you see to be honest with you it is a great idea, but there are many ways to give that support, sometimes it could be in cash which has its own challenges. Handling of that is also in itself a wonderful and great idea.

    “Take for instance, in Imo State now I have introduced what is called empowerment, they buy motor cycles and give people N5,000 or N 10,000, for me that is not my style. My style is to declare free education, from primary, secondary to university; nobody pays one Naira in Imo state.

    “The very poor people who have to ensure a lot of social inconveniences to pay school fees are no longer dong that, what has happened is that he has saved that money to produce further wealth, so if you keep money through that system, it creates more impact than physical cash.

    “Physical cash sometimes creates more problems, so it is great idea, we have to do it one way or the other as time comes,” he said.

    He supported President Buhari’s anti-corruption battle, stressing that any money stolen out of the treasury will always have adverse effect on development of infrastructure in the country.

    Earlier, Al-Malkura also disclosed that he discussed with the Vice-President the incessant violent clashes between farmers’ ‎and Fulani herdsmen in Nasarawa which spilled over to neighboring Benue State.

    Attacks by the herdsmen on Agatu communities in Benue state last week had left hundreds dead and several building and farms destroyed.

    ‎Al-Makura said he was liaising with the Benue State government to end the clashes and that the Vice-President was quite understanding and cooperative as he promised federal government’s quick intervention.

    He said: “Secondly, I have also discussed with Mr. Vice President about the security situation in my state and what effort we are making to bring everything to sanity.

    “Also, I am making effort with my colleague the governor of Benue state in having a joint effort to see what we can do to ensure that these long standing communal clashes between Fulanis and farmers and Agatus in Nasarawa and Agatus in Benue to see that we find a lasting solution to it.” He said

    He also lamented that since 1978 when the state was connected to the national grid with 33KVA transmission lines, no improvement had been made despite growing population and energy needs in the state.

    According to him, he discussed with Osinbajo the need to connect the state with 330KVA transmission lines.

    He said: “Basically, I spoke with the Vice President about the issues of power and energy in my state.  And as you must have known, Nasarawa State being very close to the federal capital territory, and I raised a lot of demands for power and energy for domestic and industrial purposes. And given the sophistication of this area in terms of different kinds of activities.

    “And ironically, the state which was first connected to power in 1978, is still within 33KV which is not even enough for the state capital not to talk about other local government councils.

    “So, I have come specifically to request and plead with Mr. Vice President and the chairman of NIPP about the impending power initiative in the country to consider Nasarawa State as one of the states that will benefit from the 330KV which is the robust infrastructure for power that comes all the way from Enugu to Benue and to Plateau States. It just passed beside the Government House but Nasarawa State has not been able to benefit.

    “I have been on this struggle since 2012, but up till this time the state is still terribly deprived of power and he has listened to me. I believe that the people of Nasarawa State will heave a sigh of relief once the 330 Kva is done and another 132kva is connected to it for easy distribution,” he added.

    On the Vice President’s response, he said: “It was very fantastic and he assured us that they will see what the federal government can do to quickly ameliorate the problem and about the power, I got assurance from the Vice President that we will succeed.”

  • Nasarawa lawmakers plan legislative coup

    Nasarawa lawmakers plan legislative coup

    Lawmakers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Nasarawa State House of Assembly are determined to procure the impeachment of Governor Tanko Al-Makura, even if it offends fair play, rule of law and constitutional provisions. They do not see the impeachment drive they are championing as a constitutional issue; they see it as a political matter, and do not appear to care what the end of it would be. Dissatisfied with playing the Scarlet Pimpernel in the past few weeks over their subterranean moves to impeach Governor Al-Makura, and still breathing imprecates against the governor and thirsting for more blood, they have resolved to oppose the seven-man investigative panel constituted by the state Chief Judge, Suleiman Dikko, to look into the impeachment allegations against the governor. They argue that the panel is made up of the governor’s loyalists. In other words, they do not trust the judgement and impartiality of the panel, but would prefer a panel certain to hang the governor.

    Last month, Adamawa State lawmakers had inspired a similar treason plot against the implacable Murtala Nyako, perhaps the only governor in the North to look President Goodluck Jonathan in the face and call him unflattering names. Having also offended the political juggernauts of the state, virtually all of whom loathe the finer principles of democracy – or perhaps can’t understand the concept – the former naval officer was already isolated and ready to be offered when the knives came out for him. The Adamawa legislature, however, did not simply plot an impeachment to right the wrongs attributed to the deposed governor, they engaged in the most atrocious machination ever conducted in any House of Assembly in Nigeria.

    Not only could they not agree on whom to impeach between the former governor and his deputy, Bala Ngilari, they were consumed by their common disregard for procedure and constitutionality. Former Deputy Governor Ngilari, they realised, did no wrong, at least nothing properly describable as impeachable offences. But they needed to get rid of him in order to bring about the crooked outcome they had designed. Eventually they tricked him into resigning on the excuse that it would be easier to enthrone him after their common foe, Admiral Nyako, was humiliated. But, as it turned out, the goal of the legislators was to enthrone the highly ambitious Umaru Fintiri, former Speaker of the House of Assembly. In essence, what took place in Adamawa last month was not an impeachment but a legislative coup.

    Nasarawa’s legislative coup is a little different. While it is not yet clear what their final objective is, that is apart from unhorsing the governor to seize the state from the electorate through the backdoor, the state’s 20 PDP lawmakers are, however, bent on deposing Governor Al-Makura by the most brazen legislative abracadabra ever. Since the constitution does not allow them the leeway they seek, they have sought to abridge, circumvent and humiliate it. This is why they want a panel that would do their private and unconstitutional bidding. This is why they are asking Justice Suleiman to disband the panel he had constituted and replace it with one amenable to their whims. It is not certain just what mettle Justice Suleiman is made of, whether he has the character to resist the legislative insurrection going on in Nasarawa, or whether he would succumb as supinely as the Acting Chief Judge of Adamawa did under the pressure of Dr Jonathan’s increasingly partisan Nigerian Army.

    What is clear, however, is that so far while the Nasarawa legislature has behaved lawlessly and irresponsibly, the state Chief Judge has confined himself to the ambit of the law. Tomorrow may bring new realities. But there is no reality that can erase the conviction that Nigeria has come under gunboat democracy, one in which the constitution is disregarded, and the president, his aides and party strategists are embroiled in the most pernicious subversion of both the constitution and democracy. We are blithely sowing the wind today; it is certain we will reap the whirlwind before long, for nature itself abhors the capricious and despicable politics being played by the president and his men.

  • Jonathan, Nasarawa Speaker, PDP chieftain meet

    Jonathan, Nasarawa Speaker, PDP chieftain meet

    President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday held a closed-door meeting with the Speaker of Nasarawa State House of Assembly, Musa Mohammed and the Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Uche Secondus, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    There have been street protests by youths in the state following moves by the state House of Assembly to impeach Governor Tanko Al-Makura.

    The governor is a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The lawmakers on Wednesday asked the state Chief Judge to raise a panel to investigate al-Makura on 16 charges of gross abuse of public office.

    But speaking with State House correspondents after meeting with the President, the Speaker, who was accompanied by some principal officers of the House of Assembly, declined to give details of the meeting.

    He said: “It is a private visit. I don’t have the mandate of the State Assembly to brief the press. The Chairman of the House Committee on Information has the mandate to speak to the press on anything concerning impeachment.”

    Secondus, who emerged from the President’s office few minutes later also declined to give details of the discussion at the meeting.

    “It’s consultation. I can’t say whatever now. We are consulting,” he stated.