Tag: Maku

Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, has told members of the armed forces to resist the temptation of staging incursion into politics, despite the growing security challenges thrown up by the Boko Haram insurgency.

The minister warned that any military intervention at this point in the nation’s history would spell disaster for the country, stressing that past military incursions into politics did not help the development of the country.

Maku sounded the warning yesterday while handing over the Defence portfolio to the newly appointed Minister of Defence, Lt. Gen. Aliyu Gusau.

He charged the Armed Forces to steer clear of partisan politics and to remain loyal to the democratically constituted civilian authority at all times.

Maku was the supervising Minister for Defence, a position he held since September 2013, but which he relinguished to Gusau on Friday.

According to him, conflicts are inevitable among politicians in any political system, stressing that it is the nature of politicians to disagree over a number of national issues and to resolve their differences through democratic means.

“Past military interventions did not help the country. Any military intervention at this point in our history would be a disaster. There will always be crisis among politicians but that should not be a reason for military intervention,” the minster emphasised.

He cited the case of past political turbulence in India, where crisis among the country’s politicians led to the assassination of a Prime Minister (Indra Gandhi) and yet the country’s military did not intervene.

The minister admitted the enormity of the challenges confronting the nation, citing the Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeastern part of the country and bloody communal clashes in places like Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa and others.

He however, expressed the optimism that the country would overcome the challenges in no distant future.

Maku flayed what he described as “indiscrete comments” by some public office holders on the Boko Haram insurgency and the seeming inability of the military might to quash the insurgency despite the huge security funding.

According to him, much is being done by the government to curtail the activities of the insurgents, even though not all the efforts were being re

Yesterday’s meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) was solemn.

President Goodluck Jonathan shocked the ministers when he announced the exit of four of them from the cabinet.

A major casualty – the controversial Minister of Aviation Stella Oduah – was absent at the meeting. She had been told by the President of the decision to “let her go”.

It was not clear whether the three other ministers dropped from the cabinet were told before yesterday.

Police Affairs Minister Caleb Olubolade, Minister of Niger Delta Godsday Orubebe and Minister of State for Finance Yerima Ngama, attended the meeting.

But Olubolade and Orubebe left before the end without talking to reporters.

Ngama spoke briefly in Hausa to a few reporters on his way out of the Villa.

Yesterday’s action by the President followed Monday’s forced exit of Chief of Staff to the President Mike Oghiadomhe.

Minister of Information Labaran Maku told reporters at the end of the FEC meeting that the ministers were “allowed to go” to pursue personal and political goals.

According to him, the President thanked them for their contributions and wished them well in their future endeavour.

Until substantive ministers are sworn in, he said the President directed the Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Dr. Samuel Ortom to take charge of the Aviation Ministry, the Minister of State for Niger Delta, Isiaku Darius is to take charge of the Ministry, Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, will oversee her portfolio in addition to that of the Minister of the State. Minister of State FCT, Olajumoke Akinjide will take charge of the Police Affairs Ministry.

He said: “The President announced further changes in the federal executive council. He said a number of ministers have been asked to step out of the federal executive council to pursue or further their own interests, some in politics others private-focused. But mainly what the president did today was to allow ministers who have indicated interest in pursuing further goals in the polity and in the economy and in the life of the country, to be allowed to go.

“In announcing the acceptance of their decision to participate further in the polity, the President thanked them very sincerely for the great job they have done in helping the government realise a number of the goals that have been achieved under the transformation agenda. The President believes that they have done so well for the country, they have done so well for this administration. He was generally happy with what they have done, particularly in their various sectors to help the administration realise the goals that we see today and the results that we have arrived at under the transformation programme of the government.”

Maku said the President explained that the former Chief of Staff, Mike Oghiadomhe was not sacked because of corruption or malpractices.

Maku said: “The President explained that contrary to this insinuation which came from the social media and were also replicated in some regular media, Oghiadomhe left to pursue further interest in politics.

“The office of the chief of staff does not supervise the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), it has no direct correlation with the work of the NNPC and he said if Oghiadomhe had left because of NNPC, then it will suggest that there must have been people in the NNPC that would have been involved with him and those people too would have gone. So contrary to these speculations, the President asked him to go when he offered to resign to participate to pursue interest in politics. The president made it very clear that the resignation of the former chief of staff has nothing to do with the alleged misdemeanors in NNPC, but rather it was purely a decision of the former chief of staff to withdraw his services to participate in pursuing further interest in politics,” he added.

On whether Mrs Oduah was asked to go based on the report on the N255 million car scam by the committee set up to investigate the allegation, Maku said: “I have just reported exactly what the President said. Also don’t forget allegations don’t necessarily mean guilt and I think the press should always take sometimes to be patient. But the truth of the matter is that they left because they indicated interest in playing deeper roles in the politics of the country and the President has decided to let them go”.

On why the government is keeping silent on the allegation of missing funds by Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, he said: “I will caution that we be patient for the institution of government to respond. You will recall that the CBN governor claimed $49 billion or there about was missing and inquiry shows that that was not so. Now he has been making further claims and NNPC has been responding and I believe that I do not have the facts now to answer your questions.”

Maku added that the council considered the report of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group and referred it to the Minister of Agriculture to look into the recommendations and present a memo.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday urged the Information Minister Labaran Maku to identify anti-development politicians within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

It also asked the minister to ask his principal why he would not allow peace to reign in Rivers State.

In a statement yesterday in Lagos by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party slammed Maku for describing as anti-national interest and anti-development the APC’s directive to its members in the National Assembly not to cooperate with the Executive until peace returned to Rivers State.

It urged the minister to note that anytime he points one finger at others, four other fingers were pointing at him.

APC said: “It is interesting that an Information minister, who does not see anything wrong in the illegal use of the police to deny the people of a state in the nation he is purportedly serving their rights, has suddenly found his voice to rant at perceived enemies of Nigeria, when the real enemies are within the government he is serving.

“Where was Maku when a senator was shot in Rivers, simply for attending a rally? What happened to Mr Maku’s voice when an elected governor was being harassed by a police commissioner, who is supposed to take orders from him, going by the Constitution? Why did Maku not raise the alarm when Rivers State legislators were locked out of the House of Assembly’s chambers? If Maku wants to know those who are seeking to truncate the nation’s democracy, he should inquire from the Presidency, which has been the pillar of support for the anarchists in Rivers State.”

It insisted that there was nothing anti-development about a party asking its lawmakers to withdraw legislative cooperation from a lawless Federal Government.

APC said: “In case Maku has forgotten, it is his party, the PDP, which has used its majority in the House of Representatives to frustrate the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which has now forced international oil companies to start divesting from Nigeria. Considering that oil remains the mainstay of our economy, who then is trying to endanger the nation’s survival? Which party can best be described as ant-development, if not the PDP?”

The opposition urged Maku to tell Nigerians why the Presidency was finding it difficult to rein in the impudent and unprofessional Rivers State Police Commissioner Mbu Joseph Mbu?

“If the Presidency wants the legislative cooperation of our members today, all it has to do is to call Mbu to order by telling him to face, squarely, his duty and leave politics to politicians; to ensure that no other part of the country is allowed to descend into anarchy just because the Presidency wants it to happen for reasons that are everything but in the nation’s interest.

“The summary of our statement is that the Presidency should be held responsible for the face-off that has now rankled with you so much. Rest assured, however, that the face-off will not last another 24 hours, if the Presidency would stop playing the puppeteer in the Rivers crisis,” APC said.

The Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku, on Friday in Akun, Nasarawa state urged Nigerian youths to embrace peace so as to ensure the country’s unity and development.

Maku made the call as part of his Christmas message to various groups of youths in the Akun Development Area of the state.

He expressed displeasure over the crisis which recently engulfed some parts of the state and advised all affected groups to forgive each other for peace and development to take place.

The minister said he was happy with the manner Christmas was celebrated by the indigenes of the state as no case of crisis was recorded in the state.

“We, as stakeholders, must put hands on deck to ensure that peace is restored back to the state,’’ he said.

Maku urged the youths to reject anyone who believed in causing confusion in order to win election.

“Without peace, no nation will experience development. Lives and properties lost during crises can never be regained,” the minister said.

He said it was wrong for people to think that the best way to seek redress was through violence.

Maku assured the people of government’s support to enable the message of peace to be spread to the entire rural communities in the state.

He called on parents, as well as traditional and religious leaders, to join hands with the federal government to ensure peace and development in the country.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has told the Federal Government that Information Minister Labaran Maku be relieved of his new assignment as the supervising minister of defence.

The party alleged that the minister “is an interested party” in the spiralling crisis ravaging Nasarawa State – the minister’s home state – where the government has ordered the deployment of troops to end the violence.

In a statement yesterday in Lagos by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the fact that Maku is of the Eggon ethnic stock, to which the Ombatse cult/militia group behind the Nasarawa crisis has been linked, has made his new role as the supervising minister of defence untenable.

It said even if the minister has no sympathy for the rampaging Ombatse, whatever action he takes in his new capacity – as far as the Nasarawa violence is concerned – will be open to misinterpretation and allegation of bias, which can aggravate the crisis.

“This is why we believe that the most prudent thing to do is for President Goodluck Jonathan to immediately take the Defence Ministry portfolio from Mr. Maku. This is in line with international best practice,” APC said.

The party said the minister has not helped matters by the comments he made in an interview he granted the BBC on Thursday, in which he insinuated that the state government had not initiated dialogue with stakeholders to end the crisis “and in which he tried to downplay the critical role that the state government has played in curtailing the activities of the Ombatse cult/ethnic militia that has been engaged in senseless killings and plundering in the state”.

APC added: “In both instances, the minister has been economical with the truth. In the first instance, Maku was invited to several meetings in the wake of the Ombatse attacks on Assakio and Agyaragu, last year, and the Alakyo massacre of security agents, this year. He neither attended nor sent his apologies, despite the invitations extended to him to be part of the meetings with traditional rulers, national and state legislators, as well as political and public office holders at federal and state levels, among others.

“At the instance of the state government, several meetings have also been held with Eggon leaders and the Eggon Cultural and Development Association (ECDA), to no avail. It is, therefore, blatantly wrong for the minister, or anyone for that matter, to say the state government has not initiated dialogue to resolve the crisis.

“Also, the state governor has been briefing the President, on a regular basis, on the crisis. He has requested for the deployment in the state of a Mobile Police Squadron as well as troops. While the requests were granted, the deployments are just about being carried out; yet Maku gave an erroneous impression concerning the role of the state government in curtailing the crisis.

“Thirdly, the state government has compiled and sent to the Federal Government the names and addresses of the suspected leaders and major players in Ombatse, the perpetrators of the violence. The state government has also instituted a judicial commission of enquiry into the violence, while assisting the victims of the violence state-wide.

“It is, therefore, an act of blatant mischief to try to belittle the role of the state government in ending the needless crisis.”

The party said the fact that Maku and any prominent Eggon indigene has not yet condemned Ombatse’s endless attacks on innocent people as well as security operatives was enough evidence of where their sympathy lies.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday replied the APC following its comment on the crisis in Nassarawa State.

In a statement, the state PDP Chairman, Chief Yunana Iliya, absolved Maku of any complicity in the crisis.

Iliya blamed Governor Tanko al-Makura for allegedly working clsely with the Ombatse sect, even when the minister was publicly castigating the group.

The statement reads: “On September 19, Lai Mohammed, the National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) issued a tendentious statement which tried to question the integrity of the Minister of Information and Acting Minister of Defence, Mr. Labaran Maku, regarding the ongoing crisis in Nasarawa State.

“The PDP in Nasarawa State wishes to state unequivocally that the APC government in Nasarawa State is largely responsible for the ongoing violence in the state.”