The Nation Newspaper

Tag: IBB

  • IBB’s cautious prognostication

    MORE than two months after he embarrassingly vacillated over the simple but patriotic task of deprecating President Muhammadu Buhari uninspiring leadership style, former military head of state, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, has given Channels Television an interview in which he seems to demonstrate that he has found his voice and has given his courage, which sometimes appears inscrutably coded, free rein. In February, Gen Babangida had suggested in a statement issued by his long-standing spokesman, Kassim Afegbua, that President Buhari should probably step down in 2019 because his approach to leadership was anachronistic. “In 2019 and beyond,” said the former military leader unusually bravely, “we should come to a national consensus that we need new breed leadership with requisite capacity to manage our diversities and jump-start a process of launching the country on the super highway of technology-driven leadership in line with the dynamics of modern governance. It is short of saying enough of this analogue system. Let’s give way for digital leadership orientation with all the trappings of consultative, constructive, communicative, interactive, and utility-driven approach where everyone has a role to play in the process of enthroning accountability and transparency in governance.”

    But shortly after that bold and unprecedented call, a noncommittal statement presumably issued by him hemmed and hawed over President Buhari’s unstated second term ambition and all but repudiated the earlier statement. A disgusting melodrama consequently ensued, scripted and acted by the law enforcement and security agencies, purporting to defend constitutionalism and harassing Mr Afegbua. Days later, it was clear indeed that Gen Babangida neither sat on the fence nor wished his statement to be ambiguous. He had had it up to the gills with President Buhari’s non-inclusive leadership style and was willing to gamble everything he had done and achieved on one fanatical and engaging throw of the dice to find a replacement for the president in 2019.

    In the Channels interview broadcast on Monday night, however, the general was more self-assured, even if somewhat rambling, and his views quite forthright but lacking depth. He reinforced his thesis about new and younger leadership in 2019, spoke glowingly of Nigeria’s founding fathers, appeared in some parts to be self-deprecating, but overall seemed subliminally trenchant about finding someone with the right amalgam of principles and values as leader. The masks and gloves were off, and Gen Babangida had summoned the will eventually to call a spade a spade. He is thoroughly disliked, as he confessed in the interview, but seemed to recognise that the retrogression overwhelming Nigeria, not to say the unending flow of blood in many parts of the country, portended grave danger for Nigeria, if not balkanisation. Eschewing all other considerations — political, social or traditional — the former dictator has reiterated the need to salvage the situation before it gets out of hand.

    Gen Babangida raised two issues, among many others, that merit closer attention. First, he spoke of his reluctance to write his autobiography because he felt the public would not read it, having made up their minds that he could neither be truthful in the said memoires nor sensible and logical enough to offer sound evidence and arguments for his policies that miscarried badly during his years in power, particularly the June 12, 1993 elections that he annulled. Then, secondly, but much more nuanced, he indicated the leitmotif of his life to consist of his often cocksure views, his stubborn attachment to those views, and his gross inability to comprehend why Nigerians detest those views, and by inference, his person, regardless of his general affability and disguised humaneness.

    The general said enough in the Channels interview to suggest why it would be pointless to write an autobiography. Hear him: “If God spares my life, I will discuss about June 12 election because I still believe people don’t get what we were trying to put across. Nobody has ever sat down to say the two persons involved are friends, what went wrong? We tried to rationalise why we had to do what we did but nobody is prepared to listen to us. I have never seen anybody write anything on this to try to give people a different version altogether.” No one who heard him intone that position could fail to contemplate the bizarreness of his logic, nor understand his bewildering inability to come to terms with the issues surrounding June 12. June 12 was fated to be the apotheosis of his rule; that he turned it into probably the worst personal tragedy of any ruler in Africa is perhaps a tribute to the superficiality of his mind and his inscrutably cavalier approach to governance. It is indeed hard to understand why, despite his many years in power, and after meeting minds with some of the country’s finest appointees, he finds levity and gravity indistinguishable.

    But he was not through with his deceptive self-abnegation. Still explaining why he would not dare write, he explains further: “People may not read it because it’s coming from a dictator. Yea, he cancelled June 12 and that will kill the thing about the book, but I will try…I hope one day, if God spares my life, I will discuss it (June 12 elections) because I still believe people don’t get what we were trying to put across.” Apart from failing to appreciate the gravity of the decision to annul the June 12 poll, it is remarkable that he thought that that futile and hurtful step could be mitigated by the sentimentality of his private relationship with the winner of that year’s presidential election, the late Moshood K. Abiola. Was he simply trying to validate his decision and make it less grievous for his troubled conscience? The suspicion among the discerning is that Gen Babangida is either too far gone in his betrayal of country to correctly judge his own infamy, or he is too shallow to comprehend the huge disaster which that fateful decision brought upon the country. In the interview, sadly, he came across ingeniously as both.

    Gen Babangida is a man of many parts. Having ruled for over eight years, and having taken the country on an emotional roller coaster through the thick of policy experimentations, it was not unexpected that he would at least grasp the silhouette of leadership dynamics. In the interview, he actually gave indication he did. He spoke very elegantly and even inspiringly about the qualifications he thought the next president should have. “I want to see a young man with the vision of Obafemi Awolowo,” he enthused. “I want to see a young man who has the charisma of Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello. I want to see a young man who has the eloquence, education, and powers of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe; and I want to see a young man who has convictions like General Olusegun Obasanjo, retd.” It is not clear why he hurled Dr Obasanjo into the equation; perhaps he merely indulged his own tendency to be ingratiating.

    If he knew these leadership qualities, or had some ideas what they were, it is strange that nine years in power did not make him any whit like any of the heroes he mentioned. The general is a student of power, but he has not given the impression that anything he learnt was of value to him in and out of office. He spoke of Awolowo’s vision, but he groped through office as a military dictator blinded by power, harried by self-doubt, promiscuous in policy experimentation, undisciplined, frivolous and eager to curry praise and sycophancy. Indeed, it is doubtful whether he read any of Chief Awolowo’s books, let alone imbibe and practice the discipline that energised the old man’s vision.

    There was nothing in the Channels interview, or in any other interview he has ever given, that shows he has learnt anything from the charismatic and eponymous Sardauna or from the gifted polemicist and rhetorician, Dr Azikiwe. To offer these great examples as some of the qualities Nigeria’s next president must imbibe suggests that he knows what he is talking about, and that the attributes have been tested and found fit for recommendation. He should have profited from his own wise counsel. It is a great failing that he didn’t. But that he didn’t, not to talk of being one of the most execrated former leaders ever on account of his failings and lack of discipline, should not encourage both the public and President Buhari to ignore the remonstrations of the elders. Gen Babangida stands pat with Chief Obasanjo and Gen T.Y. Danjuma, both of whom have denounced the abysmal methods and tactics of the Buhari presidency.

    It is not certain which other top Nigerian possesses enough stature to denounce the underperforming President Buhari. But those who have, particularly Dr Obasanjo and Gen Babangida, have staked their all on producing a new, perhaps younger, Nigerian leader in 2019. If they fail, the consequences will be brutal and swift, not only to the former leaders, who would be instantly ostracised, but to the country as a whole. It seems in fact that what is propelling the former leaders to stiffen their resolve and opposition to President Buhari is their conviction that the president is clearly not an alternative in 2019, and that should he return to office, the country’s future would be endangered. Had they themselves offered the country the leadership it needed, given the introspection they now insinuate to themselves, it would be inconceivable that President Buhari, whose disputed ability and worldview are unsuited to the modern world, not to talk of to a complex, heterogeneous and modernising Nigeria, would have stood for election and won.

  • Ways out of insurgency, by IBB

    FORMER military president Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (rtd) has proffered solutions to some of the country’s problems.

    In an interview with Channels Television last night, Babangida said one way to solve the problem of insurgency is to counter it with superior military and psychological power, while corruption should be addressed holistically.

    Babangida, who noted that the aim of the insurgents is to increase the number of casualties,  said all they mean by their nocturnal actions is that the government could no longer protect the people as the citizenry would be affected psychologically by the several attacks.

    He said: “The country is large. Borno State, for example. You can’t put a soldier in a central place. I think they are overstretched.’’

    In an answer to a question that the problem did not exist in his time, he said: ‘’I thank God.’’

    Babangida urged the government to rise to the occasion by using its enormous federal might in information gathering to know how the insurgents operate and securing important places, adding that it should also let the people know that it knows what is happening to them and that it is capable of nipping it in the bud.”

    On corruption, Babangida said all hands should be on deck, adding that the government should find out the root cause of the problem and block leakages where they exist. He mentioned the Ethical Revolution introduced by the Shehu Shagari administration and several reports by his administration.

  • Neo-new breed from IBB

    There is strutting deja vu, in Gen. Ibrahim Babangida’s call for power gerontocrats to quit.

    That one-black-brush-tars-all is aimed at President Muhammadu Buhari — hardly a democratic crime, even if its ultra-base motive is glaring.

    It is IBB’s latest, to shoo President Buhari from a legitimate second term; even as the old soldier from Minna hides behind a finger, of newfound love for the “youth”.

    Yet, that deja vu would appear completely lost, on the opportunistic brood that clambered to his Minna hill top mansion, like vultures swooping on a thick ooze of carrion — political carrion of lazy and illicit advantage.

    If these youngsters were not residents of Mars all this while, they ought to have asked themselves what became of IBB’s first push at “new breed”.

    It was during IBB’s halcyon years, of military power without responsibility; and endless wayward experimentation, that his junta dubbed political transition.

    Still new breed, old or neo, the IBB principle is constant: eternally butting citizens off their legitimate rights.

    The old experiment was, for personal glory, to elbow off the 1st and 2nd Republic political Titans; and make way for IBB as transmuted president.  That failed, following the fiasco that forced, then issued from, the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election.

    This new gambit is, for class envy, to gyp an old man of his constitutional right to second term.

    Then, IBB was young.  Now, he is old.  But again, the motive remains constant, which again underscores the fallacy of young-old dichotomy in politics.

    It was Karl Marx who quipped: “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.”

    In his Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon (published 1852), he was contrasting the farce of Louis Napoleon’s French dictatorship (as Napoleon III, 1851) to Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s real power and glory (as Napoleon I, 1799); after the tragic mimicry of Napoleon Francois Charles Joseph Bonaparte, as Napoleon II, Emperor-without-Empire of France, after his father, Bonaparte’s abdication in 1814; and from birth, titular Prince Imperial and King of Rome).

    Did the great Marx ever put any thought to farce repeating itself?  He probably never envisaged the Nigerian situation.  Yet, that is what is opening before our very eyes.

    IBB, seized by the hubris of his military power and glory in 1989, decreed the old “new breed”.  That ultimately turned a farce.

    Now in 2018, even as his old power is gone, and his influence appears waning, he pushes another farce in “neo-new breed”!

    Talk of farce — not history — repeating itself!  What a polity!

    But history or farce, there are always consequences — and dire ones for a country that rushes into fresh blunders, because it proudly lacks institutional memory.

    The collapse of the political party system is one of those telling consequences, for a fledgling democracy.

    There is this penchant to rhapsodize the 1st Republic, as some lost utopia, compared to today’s ruin.

    That is not totally incorrect, so long that romanticization is limited to the operating regional structure.  Truly, that spurred the federal system into high inter-regional competition, dizzying productivity and promising development, all-round.

    Even then, arbitrary power, and its reactionary use, came with that pristine territory.  That was why, as early as November 1960 — one month after independence — North and East lobbies, in the federal Parliament in Lagos, were already dizzy with reckless talks about “abolishing” the West, because they hated Obafemi Awolowo’s politics.

    That of course sent that republic to early grave, and heralded military rule with its best-forgotten abuses.

    Still, something survived the military hurricane, that would rage for the next 29 years (1966-1999) — with a civilian interregnum of four years under 2nd Republic President Shehu Shagari (1979-1983) — getting most destructive under Gen. Babangida, and his Khalifa, Gen. Sani Abacha.

    That was the party system.  Between the 1st Republic (1960-1966) and the 2nd Republic (1979-1983), the party system somewhat held.

    Conservatives banded together from the old Northern People’s Congress (NPC), to new National Party of Nigeria (NPN).

    So largely did the progressives: from the old Action Group (AG) to the new Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), under Chief Awolowo, though some of his key 1st Republic allies, like Anthony Enahoro and Joseph Tarka, crossed over to the NPN.

    The other three parties, registered for the 1979 elections, were variants of these two major planks: the Nigerian People’s Party (NPP), under Zik; its offshoot, Great Nigeria People’s Party (GNPP), under Waziri Ibrahim, and the People’s Redemption Party (PRP), under Mallam Aminu Kano, still bore ideological fealty to tendencies in the 1st Republic.

    Indeed, so strong was the party system that President Shagari, though an executive president, attended party caucuses under party chairman, Adisa Akinloye; and was bound by party decisions.

    So did the UPN maintain a stranglehold on its governments, made easier by its rule that its governors, or governorship candidates, were state chairmen of the party, while Awo, as presidential candidate, was national president.

    But in 1989, IBB’s “new breed” truncated all that — and the disaster today is the collapse of the party system, the recession of the party as an ensemble of shared values and the rise of the one-man financier, instead of the collective levy of old.

    That was also why, within two years of his presidency, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo would pounce on the PDP that propelled him to power; and with apostolic frenzy,  got rid of its more decent minds: like Sunday Awoniyi, Solomon Lar and Audu Ogbeh.

    By the time he settled for Ahmadu Alli, as his “garrison commander” into the 2007 “do-or-die” election, the PDP goose was cooked, though its members were too full of the delicious gravy of power to notice a thing.

    Enter then, the era of the president as “party leader”, which instals the president as some emperor over the party that fired him into power.

    That absurdity is replicated in states too, where the governors also fancy themselves as strongmen, before whom other party hoi polloi, including even elected collectives as the House of Assembly, must bow and worship!

    Apologists of this humbug quip that is how America does it — America, whose presidential system we copy.

    Ay!  But does Nigeria boast the robust conventions, of party checks and balances, spanning over 200 years, that make the American system work?

    Even the ruling APC is hit by this plague, of president as party emperor.  PMB might be a decent fellow, who commands moral authority.  But how would APC cope, with its rainbow coalition yet to fully gel, when hit by its own “Obasanjo”?   Can the party stand the storm?

    That is the systemic ruin, all for selfish ends, IBB’s old “new breed”, has wrought on the political party system.

    Pray, what more future ruin, does IBB’s new farce, the neo-new breed, hold for the polity?

    Of course, that is totally lost on the history-vacuumed youth, dancing around his subversive flame, like doomed moths.  Pity!

  • OBJ, IBB, Danjuma, and the rest of us

    Three fabulously wealthy retired generals, two of them, former heads of state and one, a former defence minister are visibly agitated and even on the loose. The latest and the most incendiary is the outburst of retired General Theophilus Danjuma, who struck unfathomable person fortune when he sold an oil well for nearly US$2billion.

    There is no comparable fortunate retired General in the world, who got such breathtaking state hampers as oil field, and exploded in wealth without consumerate drop of sweat.

    Talking about why headsmen and farmers are in murderous encounter over depleting resource, the state’s art of parceling out of common national patrimony to very few tiny elites, account for one of the remote causes of the widening and terrific conflicts in which the toxic contradiction of peoples ever growing needs meets with shrinking opportunities.

    Danjuma at a convocation ceremony of Taraba State University lashed out the army, which President Muhammadu Buhari is the current Commander-in-Chief as criminally colluding with murderous marauders to attack helpless communities, decimating their population and pillaging their properties. He calls on Nigerians not to place their security in the constituted authority of a government they freely elected but to rise in self-defence against maunders and their military backers.

    Coming soon after the copious letter of former President and retired army General Olusegun Obasanjo, who owns billions of naira worth of private university and presidential library, in which he accused the government of incompetence and feeble anti-corruption war, followed by half-hearted and unsolicited counsel of former president, Ibrahim Babangida to President Buhari to forfeit any second term ambition, the impression cannot be lost in any discerning and fairly intelligible quarter, that the inordinate tantrums the retired soldiers dressed up as patriotic outrage is more than what meets the eye. When did they actually began to care or is Nigeria’s characteristic periodic and exponential upheavals, for which they have been collectively and even privately privy to, a new phenomenon? Is the state of affairs of a weak state and dysfunctional institutions, toiled to perpetuate influence peddling and power-grab not the crucible of  a prebendal polity and socio-economic system, benefiting men of power, money influence, even when they have exited formal state apparatus? Has the edifice of a rigged structure designed to be manipulated from outside under threat and has the influence peddling maneuvers of retired General, on state authority under threat.

    If President Buhari is eventually disrupting and dismantling paternalistic structure of the state, in which a tiny elite exercise a disproportionate suzerainty over it, to its benefit and allied surrogates to the exclusion of the majority of Nigerians, then a backlash of coordinated outbursts is only to be expected and is even welcome.

    Both presidents Obasanjo and Babagida helped entrench fragile state structure, and weak public institutions, reinforced by elite impunity, lawlessness and corruption that is at the root of contemporary Nigeria’s challenge.

    Having established the corrosive network through which the state is rendered hollow and vulnerable to insidious manipulations by handful of elites, from where they thrive and enjoy questionable appellations of “statesmen”, any prospective disruption of the informal network of state control would naturally draw the ire of the “big men” who have enjoyed the status of a state within state.

    The open revolt of Nigeria’s rich retired army Generals whose personal fortunes are way beyond the imaginations of their peers around world, calls for sober reflection within intelligible quarters and not the mere partisan roars of many commentators.

    Against their own records in office, what is the current government doing so incompetently that could draw their irate backlash? Former President Obasanjo enjoyed rare goodwill of a national consensus that followed the anger of General Babaginda’s questionable and endless transition to civil rule. Basking in the rare national unanimity of an elected civil administration, former President Obasanjo has the unique privilege to turn such goodwill into credible institutional process of state building. He bucked the party that brought him into office, grossly undermined state institutions and fostered surrogacy through planting minions accountable only to him and to not formal institutions of state.  He oversaw the largest turnover of the leadership of National Assembly, as he cherry picked the most malleable and pliable. President Buhari even against the prodding of his party and associates rejected meddling in the leadership of National Assembly, allowing the institution to sort out its leadership question. Ganging up against the current administration with open incitement to rebellion against it, the Generals are on a dangerous adventure. General Danjuma’s charge of a security breakdown which he alleged that the military colludes with criminal marauders to perpetuate murder and pillage against Nigerians is hot air and a mere smokescreen to hide deeper antipathy. For President Obasanjo, the latest outburst of an incompetence and even Babangida feeble attempt to put the Buhari regime to a corner are willful orchestrated outrage designed to bring the regime to an informal negotiating table of keeping alive the informal back channel through which Nigeria has been run aground that paved the way for its numerous crises. President Buhari must refuse to oblige them.

    The Buhari administrations have undoubtedly numerous self-inflicted problems, but the wolf-cry of Obasanjo, Danjuma and Babangida are national distractions, that the country cannot afford. But President Buhari must be alive to his responsibility especially in drawing the line where free speech begins and outright incitement to anarchy begins and not mistake one for another, before it is too late.

    Former French President Nicholas Sarkozy has just answered questions about his possible infractions of the law, while in office, and his Nigerian counterparts should not  be held no less accountable.

     

    • Onunaiju is journalist based in Abuja.

  • 2019: Buhari ‘ll defeat Obasanjo, IBB, others, says Presidency

    Should President Muhammadu contest in 2019, he will defeat the former leaders who are asking him not to seek reelection, presidential spokesman Garba Shehu said yesterday.

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and General Ibrahim Babangida (retd.) have advised the President not to seek reelection.

    Obasanjo has launched the Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM), which he described as a third force to the two dominant parties – the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Although the President has not declared his intention to contest, but the popular thinking is that he will.

    Shenu, fielding questions from reporters yesterday, said the President “richly deserves a second term in office.”

    He added that rather than asking Buhari not to contest in 2019, the former leaders should contest against him next year.

    “My response to them is that if they like they can come and contest against President Buhari. He will defeat them, all of them,” Shehu said

    On the belief by some Nigerians that President Buhari should not be talking of re contesting when there is hunger in the land, he said: “With all the noise the PDP is making, even during their tenure, did they give breakfast, lunch and dinner to every citizen? Is there any country in which someone does not go hungry?

    “I am not saying it is perfectly in order but they are just politicising these issues. This is a government that has removed this country from the shame of food importation.

    Every state of the country now is into rice production, and we are feeding not only Nigeria but West Africa.

    “And the government is working on having respectable prices for food items,food inflation is coming down grossly. Everyone complaining of hunger should go and work. And you know that this is the only government that has introduced social investment schemes.  We pay out now for the poorest of the poor; the least they wll get is N5,000.and a lot of these jobs that are being created are from loans with little or no interest from the Central Bank, Bank of industry, Banks of Agriculture, Development Bank  and the rest.

    “So, there is a lot going for people who really want to go out there to work, especially in agriculture.”

    Shehu also faulted those saying it was a weakness for the President not to be able reshuffle his cabinet since 2015.

    He said: “The President is the one who wears the shoes; he knows where it pinches. If the President hasn’t sacked his ministers, it means that he wants to continue to work with them.

    “Maybe those agitating for the sack of the ministers are also looking for a chance to come in to replace those who are there, in that case, then they are driven by selfish motive.

    “As President and commander-in-chief, he reserves the right to hire and fire. The fact that he hasn’t done that does not mean that he does not have the power to do that. I am sure if he wants do it, he will do it at his own pace and time but people who want to become ministers, how many minister can we even appoint in this country?

    “I think people should just be busy; let them go and start farming instead of sitting down to speculate whether they can be made minister or not.”

    Shehu rated the administration high on infrastructural development.

    According to him, no past administration invested so much in capital projects like this.

    “From day one when he took power, the President gave a target of not less than 30 per cent of annual appropriation devoted to infrastructure development. Without infrastructure we cannot lay the foundation for growth.

    “When this administration came to power, between 95 and 96 per cent of public expenditure was going into overhead cost, leaving only about five or six per cent for infrastructure. The allocation of 30 per cent under this administration has led to tremendous  improvement in the provision of infrastructure so far  in the country. Now there is a lot of work going on, building new rail lines and the rehabilitation of the old rail system networks. Roads are being done all across the country, you only need to drive around to see for yourself.

    “The amount of work this administration has done on roads, like the expressway from Enugu to Port Harcout, has not been done in the eight years of previous administrations. We are hoping that within this year before the next election Lagos -Ibadan will be completed. It’s a lot of money; we are doing it. Government is laying the sod now for the construction of a six lane road from Abuja to Kano.

    “So there is so much that is going on in terms of that. We are doing power; you know that this administration has doubled availability of power in the country. When we came in, it stood at about 3,000 megawatts. We have hit 7,000 megawatts and we are doing more. So it depends on what you are looking at.

    “This is a government that has spent N1.3 trillion  in capital expenses under 2016 budget and has also spent as much as that under the 2017 budget and it’s almost closing on records for last year which was N1.3 trillion,” he said

    Asked if the farmers/ herders crises had not rubbished the administration’s goal of securing lives and properties, Shehu said “The problem between farmers and herdsmen predate the independence of Nigeria; if you read history you will see that farmers and herdsmen had fought for space in this country; even when British colonial rulers were here. So, this is not something new.

    “I am not saying it is welcome but I think it is over amplified now. There is a media spotlight on it because the opposition cannot engage Buhari administration on any other issue other than this lacuna that they have found.

    “They cannot discuss the war against corruption because that’s a very uncomfortable area for them. They don’t want to discuss issues of infrastructure with Buhari; they don’t want to discuss economic diversification in which this administration has achieved a lot of success. Today we have 12 million rice farmers in this country; six million new jobs are being created in other sectors by agriculture alone, food import has gone down by 95 per cent, we are feeding ourselves.

    “This year the government is planning a ban on rice importation. So we are doing so well moving from over reliance on oil to Agriculture and manufacturing.

    “Therefore, I am not saying that it is okay that the farmers and herdsmen are fighting but we are doing a lot. You can see that the recent activity, especially the military operation now in the North Central section of the country, has led to the recoveries of large quantities of weapon illegally held by militias and even herdsmen.

    “So something is being done about it. I know by the time this is done with, I don’t know what else the opposition will be talking about.” he said

    Speaking on the assertion in the social media that President Buhari is shielding herdsmen from prosecution and begging them to accept amnesty, he said: “Well, I hope you also realise that the social media has brought a lot of good things to the world and it has also brought a lot of problems not only in Nigeria but everywhere in the world.

    “Nations of the world are talking about regulations and control. This is happening in Germany, in the UK even the US you see that a lot these technology companies are being fined for infringements that they cause.

    “It’s always been heard that the default position of the social media itself is to be negative, so people have turned out to ignore grand reality and project images that are very negative. Otherwise, I wonder , this is an administration that has done extremely well and to a President who has sworn to an oath to defend the constitution and protect every life and property, it is very unfair and uncharitable to say that he will shield anybody, and, in any case, the President controls only one layer of authority; what are the governors doing, is the social media also saying that the governors are protecting the herdsmen from the law, are they saying the local governments are also protecting them?

    “You see, it has to take everyone at various levels of authority to shield somebody from the law in those circumstances, and the President himself, his passion is for the country, this is a President whose passion is not even for the office, even when everyone is asking him to go for a second term he is keeping quiet because his focus remains the nation and the problem of the country.

    “Whoever is peddling these rumours that Boko Haram is being granted amnesty and so on I would ask them, who doesn’t want to make peace with the enemy? In any case as it is proverbially said, all wars end up in the boardroom. You can defeat people technically in the field but at the end you must come to the conference room to resolve all issues.

    “So, if Boko Haram would lay down their arms and stop fighting and stop preaching that negative ideology, the country should be able to embrace them, welcome all of them so that they continue to live normal lives and be useful to the nation.

    “What that means is that we will be saving cost, saving lives that are being lost through bombing, killing of service personnel and we will be saving money that we are using to procure weapons so that such money can go into services and infrastructure and welfare of the citizens of this country. It is a win -win situation,” he said.

     

  • 2019: Buhari will defeat Obasanjo, IBB, others, says Garba Shehu

    The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari, Garba Shehu, has said that Buhari will defeat all the former Presidents and heads of state, who recently asked him (Buhari) not to re-contest in in a presidential election.
    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and General Ibrahim Babangida, are among Nigerians who have told Buhari to forget recontesting the number one seat next year.
    Garba Shehu, who said that Buhari richly deserves a second term in office, said that rather than asking Buhari not to contest in 2019, the former leaders should come out and contest against Buhari next year.
    Reacting to the call by the former leaders urging Buhari not to contest, Garba Shehu said “My response to them is that if they like they can come and contest against President Buhari. He will defeat them, all of them.”
    On the belief by some Nigerians that President Buhari should not be talking of recontesting when there is hunger in the land, he said “With all the noise the PDP is making, even during their tenure as President did they give breakfast lunch and dinner to every citizen? Is there any country in which someone does not go hungry?
    “I am not saying it is perfectly in order but they are just politicizing these issues. This is a government that has removed this country from the shame of food importation, every state of the country now is into rice production, and we are feeding not only Nigeria but west Africa.
    “And the government is working on having respectable prices for food items, food inflation is coming down grossly. Everyone complaining of hunger should go and work. And you know that this is the only government that has introduced social investment schemes, we pay out now for the poorest of the poor, the least they will get is N5,000.and a lot of these job that are been created are from loans with little or no interest from the central bank, Bank of industry, Banks of Agriculture, Development Bank  and the rest.
    “So there is a lot going for people who really want to go out there to work especially in Agriculture.”
    He also faulted those Nigerians who believed that it was a weakness for  the President not to be able reshuffle his cabinet members since 2015.
    He said “The President is the one who wears the shoes, he know where it pinches. if the president hasn’t sacked his ministers, it means that he wants to continue to work with them.
    “Maybe those agitating for the sack of the ministers are also looking for a chance to come in to replace those who are there, in that case then they are driven by selfish motive.
    “As president and commander in chief he reserves the right to hire and fire. For the fact that he hasn’t done that does not mean that he does not have the power to do that. I am sure if he wants do it, he will do it at his own pace and time but people who want to become ministers, how  many minister can we even appoint in this country?
    “I think people should just be busy.  Let them go and start farming instead of sitting down to speculate whether they can be made minister or not.” he said.
    Mallam Shehu also rated the administration high on infrastructural development.
    According to him, no past administration has invested so much in capital projects like the current administration.
    He said “Thank you for this opportunity and I want to say that  the records are there for everyone to see that no government, no past administration in Nigeria has invested as much as we have done or let me say we are currently doing in infrastructure development.
    “From day one when he took power, the president gave a target of not less than 30% of annual appropriation devoted to infrastructure development. Without infrastructure we can not lay the foundation for growth.
    “When this administration came to power, between 95 and 96 percent of public expenditure was going into overhead cost leaving only about five or six percent for infrastructure. The allocation of 30 percent under this administration has led to tremendous  improvement in the provision of infrastructure so far  in the country. Now there is a lot of work going on, building new rail lines and the rehabilitation of the old rail system networks, roads are been done all across the country, you only need to drive around to see for yourself.
    “The amount of work this administration has done on Roads i.e the expressway from Enugu to PortHarcout has not been done in the eight years of the previous administrations. We are hoping that within this year before the next election Lagos -Ibadan will be completed, it’s a lot of money, we are doing it Government is laying the sod now for the construction of a 6 lane road from Abuja to Kano.
    “So there is so much that is going on in terms of that. We are doing power, you know that this administration has doubled availability of power in the country when we came in its stood at about 3,000 MWatts, we have hit 7,000 MWatts and we are doing more so it depends on what you are looking at.
    “This is a government that has spent N1.3 Trillion  In capital expenses under 2016 Budget and has also spent as much as that under the 2017 budget and it’s almost closing on records for last year which was N1.3 Trillion.” he said
    Asked if the farmers/ herders crises have not rubbished the administration’s goal of securing lives and properties, he said “The problem between farmers and Herdsmen predates the independence of Nigeria, if you read history you will see that farmers and herdsmen had fought for space in this country even British colonial rulers were here so this is not something new.
    “I am not saying it is welcome but I think it is over amplified now, there is a media spotlight on it because the opposition cannot engage Buhari administration on any other issue other than this lacuna that they have found.
    “They cannot discuss the war against corruption because that’s a very uncomfortable area for them, they don’t want to discuss issues of infrastructure with Buhari, they don’t want to discuss economic diversification which this administration has achieved a lot of success, today we have 12 million Rice farmers in this country, six million new jobs are been created in other sector by Agriculture alone, food import has gone down by 95 Percent, we are feeding ourselves.
    “This year the government is planning a ban on rice importation. So we are doing so well moving from over reliance on oil to Agriculture and manufacturing.
    “Therefore, I am not saying that it is okay that the farmers and herdsmen are fighting but we are doing a lot. You can see that the recent activity especially the military operation now in the North Central Section of the country has led to the recoveries of large quantities of weapon illegally held by militias and even herdsmen.
    “So something is being done about it. I know by the time this is done with, I don’t know what else the opposition will be talking about.” he said
    Speaking on the assertion in the social media that President Buhari is shielding herdsmen from prosecution and begging them to accept amnesty, he said “Well, I hope you also realize that the social media has brought a lot of good things to the world and it has also brought a lot of problems not only in Nigeria but everywhere in the world.
    “Nations of the world are talking about regulations and control, this is happening in Germany in the UK even the US you see that a lot these technology companies are been fined for infringements that they cause.
    “The thing is that there is a tendency to see things from a negative point of view when your point of view is shaped and colored by the social media
    “It’s always been heard that the default position of the social media itself is to be negative, so people have turned out to ignore grand reality and project images that are very negative. Otherwise I wonder , this is an administration that has done so so extremely well and to a president who has sworn to an oath to defend the constitution and protect every life and property, it is very unfair and uncharitable to say that he will shield anybody, and In any case, the president controls only one layer of authority, what are the governors doing, is the social media also saying that the governors are protecting the herdsmen from the law, are they saying the local government are also protecting them?
    “You see it has to take everyone at various levels of authority to shield somebody from the law in those circumstances, and the president himself, his passion is for the country, this is a president whose passion is not even for the office, even when everyone is asking him to go for a second term he is keeping quiet because his focus remains the nation and the problem of the country.
    “Whoever is peddling these rumours that Boko Haram is being granted amnesty and so on I would ask them who doesn’t want to make peace with the enemy? In any case as it is proverbially said all wars end up in the Boardroom. You can defeat people technically in the field but at the end you must come to the conference room to resolve all issues.
    “So if Boko Haram would lay down their arms and stop fighting and stop preaching that negative ideology , the country should be able to embrace them welcome all of them so that they continue to live normal lives and be useful to the nation.
    “What that mean is that we will be saving cost, saving lives that are being lost through bombing, killing of service personnel and we will be saving money that we are using to procure weapons so that such money can go into services and infrastructure and welfare of the citizens of this country. It is a win -win situation.” he stated
  • Iwuanyanwu hails IBB, Soyinka for FRSC

    Iwuanyanwu hails IBB, Soyinka for FRSC

    Business man and founder, Iwuanyanwu National Ambulance Scheme Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu has hailed former President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida for establishing the Federal Road Safety Corps.

    Iwuanyanwu also hailed Prof. Wole Soyinka for birthing the FRSC idea in Nigeria 30 years ago.

    He made the commendation in Abuja, while addressing students at the maiden edition of the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC Inter Secondary School debate competition organized in collaboration with Iwuanyanwu Scheme.

    The event featured an intellectual drill with the participation of eight schools within the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.

    The students were drilled on the basic knowledge of safety. The drill was part of the strategies to further reduce road traffic crash among school children in 2018.

    He said: “FRSC is blazing a new trail in grapping some of the academic problems confronting Nigeria as a nation. Problem of road traffic crash can only be solved when the youth are given the right education, orientation right from the cradle. We strongly recommend the stride and the initiatives of catching them young of FRSC to other institutions of government to emulate.

    “On this special occasion, I will like to commended former military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida for establishing the Federal Road Safety Corps and commended the ingenuity of Professor Wole Soyinka who birthed the FRSC idea in Nigeria. I will also like to express delight over the literary performance of the students and finally hail FRSC Corps Marshall, Dr. Boboye Oyeyemi for his innovations in championing the cause of road safety through public education campaign in the last 30 years of its existence.”

    Corps Public Education Officer, Bisi Kazeem who spoke on behalf of the Corps asked students to internalize safety measures.

    He noted that the programme was designed to ensure that the safety education was made a priority in schools warning that the Corps would not tolerate the death of students through road mishaps again.

    “FRSC has come to a point where it can no longer tolerate the death of school children on our roads as a result of road traffic crashes”, he said.

    An orphan, Master Isiting Edet Samuel Eta has been awarded a scholarship from secondary school to the university level by the Iwuanyanwu Foundation.

    Eta is presently an SS3 student from Government Secondary School, Wuye, Abuja.

  • IBB, Danjuma in closed door meeting in Minna

    IBB, Danjuma in closed door meeting in Minna

    Former President General Ibrahim Babangida on Thursday held a close door meeting with General Theophilus  Danjuma at his hill-top mansion in Minna, the Niger State capital.

    The meeting lasted for three hours.  Sources disclosed that the meeting may not be unconnected  with the current security challenge and political trend of the nation.

    The former Military President was in the news recently over his letter to President Muhammadu Buhari advising him on the state of the nation.

    A reliable source disclosed that General Danjuma arrived at the Minna Airport at exactly 11:45am, after which he was driven straight to the uphill home of IBB. He was ushered into the private parlour where the meeting took place.

    No other person was allowed into the meeting except for the duo as all the guests that accompanied the visitor were asked to vacate the private parlour.

    Immediately the meeting ended, General Danjuma went straight to his host’s private   Mercedes Benz E Class that brought him from the airport and zoomed away.

    The source said:  “I am very sure that they must have discussed the general situation in the country, both security and the political situation.”

  • Jonathan, IBB, Shagari absent at Council of State meeting

    Jonathan, IBB, Shagari absent at Council of State meeting

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan, former military President, Ibrahim Babangida and ex-President Shehu Shagari were conspicuously absent at the time the Council of State meeting started at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Thursday.

    The former leaders present when the meeting started at few minutes past 11:00 a.m. were Gen. Yakubu Gowon (retd) and Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd).

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo arrived after the national anthem and the opening prayers were said.

    The meeting was the third Council of State meeting held under President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Also at the meeting are Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, former Chief Justices of Nigeria and Senate President, Bukola Saraki.

    Governors of Adamawa, Benue, Kebbi, Jigawa, Delta, Lagos, Nasarawa, Abia, Sokoto, Imo, Bauchi, Akwa Ibom, Kano, Plateau, Ogun, Rivers, Zamfara, Ebonyi and Kaduna States are also attending the meeting.

    The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, was absent when the meeting started.

    The meeting started when President Buhari arrived the Council Chamber and went round the place to shake hands with those present.

    The first meeting under Buhari was held on October 21, 2015, while the second was held in September 2016.

    The National Council of State is chaired by President Buhari, with Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo as Deputy Chairman.

    The meeting was still in progress at the time of filing this report.

  • IBB to Secondus, others: provide better choice for Nigerians

    IBB to Secondus, others: provide better choice for Nigerians

    Former military president Gen. Ibrahim Babangida has advised the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders to provide a better choice for Nigerians.

    Babangida spoke in Minna at the weekend while receiving members of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC), led by its National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus.

    A statement yesterday by the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the ex-military dictator expressed satisfaction with the rebranding so far achieved by the party ahead of the 2019 general elections.

    “I am happy at your assurances that there will be no imposition in all your primary elections. It is all about choice and you have promised to provide the best choice,” Babangida was quoted to have said.

    He was said to have hailed the December elective national convention of the PDP, and noted that not a few Nigerians believed that the national convention will hold, adding however that the outcome was successful.

    “Your ‘Reposition, Rebrand and Regain’ agenda is working and I mean particularly the rebranding. Some people believed that having been in government since 1999, the PDP will find opposition difficult but you are carrying on well and providing a better alternative.

    “You have also not abandoned the people in times of crisis. I monitored your activities in Benue, Taraba and you just said your party has sent members to Zamfara to commiserate with the people.  Surely, you have made the people the centre of your return and they will not forget you because you were with them in time of sorrow,” he was quieted to have said.

    Secondus was said to have earlier told Babangida that former Nigerian leaders must rally together to save the nation from the present administration.

    He lamented the killings and economic hardships, which Nigerians contend with on a daily basis, stressing that the country has never witnessed the type of division the people were facing.

    Secondus said: “As a leader, you made the welfare of Nigerians the thrust of governance. You were also concerned about the peace and unity of this nation. You created and built people as well as institutions.

    “Today, our nation is drifting and as a leader you cannot afford to keep quiet and watch on the sides. Leaders like you must come together and take a firm position on how to save our nation from the precipice.”