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Tag: Muhammadu Buhari

  • NOUN: NGO condemns ordeal, endorses NANS ultimatum for Law School

    An NGO, Equity & Social Justice Initiative (ESJI) on Tuesday described the refusal to admit law graduates of National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) into the Law School as “malicious’’.

    Mr Shuaib Umar, the Executive Director of  ESJI, in a signed statement in Abuja said refusing the law students’ admission into the Nigerian Law School was an injustice and malicious.

    Umar said that the NGO vehemently frowned that the injustice as darkness was allowed to triumph over light for half a decade by deterring brilliant Nigerian youths that studied in an accredited federal institution from completing their vocational training as required.

    He said that the NGO painstakingly conducted independent investigations after the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) issued a three-month ultimatum.

    He said it was discovered that NOUN law students were always invited to all NBA conferences and other conventions for all faculties of law in Nigerian universities.

    The NGO said that the students emerged as star-prize winners in a national moot-court competition for all Nigerian universities, and consequently represented the country in an Indian international competition in 2012.

    Read Also: ‘Being a lawyer is a dream come true’

    “Since then, the school was ostracised; schemed out of other competitions and bitterness, vendetta and pull-down syndrome heightened the refusal to admit to its law graduates into the Law School.

    “This refusal was carried out by the Council of Legal Education after disclaimer advertorials, despite accreditation by the National Universities Commission (NUC),’’ he said in the statement.

    The statement reads in part, “Without mincing words, it is terribly disgraceful that innocent Nigerian youths were subjected to such stretched hardship and ridicules.

    “This is for doing nothing wrong but incarcerated for their hard work and brilliance, thus a vendetta against virtues.

    “Indeed, the gang up and draconian attitudes leave much to be desired and not less than enthroning mediocrity at the expense of meritocracy.

    “It is therefore a shame on the nation that brilliance is ridiculed instead of celebrated, and innocent students held to ransom on account of inability of their counterparts to compete with them.’’

    The NGO therefore called on President Muhammadu Buhari to use his good office to address the protracted injustice immediately.

    Umar said that hard work must continue to be encouraged in all spheres of life including education and success rewarded in line with conventional norms.

    He added that competition and sportsmanship were positive virtues that exist in all vocations and societies. NANS issued a three-month ultimatum terminating in August 2018.

    The ultimatum was issued to relevant authorities to facilitate admission to all NOUN graduates into the law school like their counterparts from other accredited universities without further delay.

    NAN 

  • Coalition cannot stop Buhari’s re-election in 2019 – APC

    Alhaji Aliyu Bello, Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Nasarawa said that the new Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) cannot stop President Muhammadu Buhari `s re-election in 2019.

    Bello told newsmen in Lafia on Tuesday, that Buhari came to power on the goodwill of the people, adding that he would still leverage on that given the achievements recorded so far.

    He added that the coalition was a gang up of the political class, who were not comfortable with the feat recorded by Buhari, especially in the fight against corruption.

    “More than 90 per cent of Nigerians are not card carrying members of political parties but voters, who the president is counting on to be re-elected in 2019.

    “The amount of love shown through the mammoth crowd that normally greeted his visits to many parts of the country in recent time is a pointer to his acceptance in spite of all the antics by the opposition,” Bello said.

    He, however, said that the coalition was a wakeup call for the APC to redouble its efforts ahead of 2019.

    “As a political party that wants its membership to grow, losing any member to another party calls for concern.

    “As we are losing some, other vibrant Nigerians are joining our fold and we will work assiduously to bring more to joins us,” he added.

    Read also:Olanipekun, Ubani, others back electronic voting in 2019

    He expressed confidence in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a credible, free and fair election in 2019.

    Bello said that the use of the card reader machine would make the process very difficult to manipulate.

    Reports have it that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) joined over 30 other political parties and groups to form the CUPP.

    Reports showed that leaders of the merging political parties including the Reformed All Progressives Congress (R-APC) signed a memorandum of Understanding to oust President Buhari in 2019.

  • Nigeria to begin exportation of fertilizer soon – FEPSAN ES

    The Executive Secretary of the Fertilizer Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN), Alhaji Ahmed Rabiu Kwa has said that, Nigeria will begin to export fertilizer in the next few years going by the tempo of the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI) programme.

    FEPSAN Scribe said, that the PFI program is one of the best things that happened to Nigeria over the last two years, adding that, its activities have brought dramatic changes in agriculture and particularly the fertilizer industry in the country.

    The Executive Secretary stated this in a statement issued to newsmen in Kaduna at the weekend, adding that the successful implementation of the PFI had made fertilizer available to Nigerian farmers at affordable price.

    While noting that, President Muhammadu Buhari’s intention was to see that, fertiliser is wholly produced locally and not imported; but because not all the raw materials are available locally, therefore under PFI, 70 percent raw materials are sourced locally, while only 30 percent are imported, Kwa said, “This is a significant development from the 100% importation in the past.”

    Read Also: WAICA Re to hold AGM in Nigeria

    While disclosing that, FEPSAN has registered over 200 Fertilizer Distributors to distribute the product to the farmers across the country, he lamented that the spread of the distributors is not uniform, giving the spread as; North West (106), North Central (51), North East (14), South East (19), South West (9) and South South (3).

    According to him, “the programme is for all Nigerians and all the regions must be part of it”. He expressed dismay that the laudable initiative is not embraced by some Agro-entrepreneurs especially those from the Southern zones.

    He therefore gave other benefits of registering as FEPSAN fertilizer distributor to include; buying the fertilizer from FEPSAN registered blending plants closest to them, expansion of their market base by having retail outlets in localities around them, assured of the quantity and quality of the product they will buy, getting opportunities to attend trainings and other meetings organized by FEPSAN, its collaborators and partners.

    FEPSAN Scribe called on Agro-entrepreneurs in the South-South, South-West, South-East and North-Central Geo-political Zones in particular, to register as Fertilizer Distributors with FEPSAN under the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative program (PFI), so that farmers from their regions can also benefit from the project.

    He assured Agro-dealers from all the regions that the product is available for them to off-take from any blending plants nearest to them and that any problem related to registration should be reported to the Association.

  • 2019: No restructuring, no vote- Ohanaeze tells Presidential hopeful

    Igbo socio-political group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo said that they would be voting for any presidential candidate of any political party in 2019 that supports the call for the restructuring of the country

    A member of the group, Chuks Ibegbu in a release issued to the media also warned that the political future of Ndigbo lies on God and not on any man. This is even as he warned that nobody should play god over the political fate of Ndigbo.

    Ibegbu who was reacting to the insinuation that Igbo political future in 2023 lies on the level of support they give to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 said that the group has nothing against Buhari and his wish to re-contest for the office of the president of the country in 2019. But was however quick to add that they would restructure the country and exhibit equity in the polity.

    Read Also: PDP, Ohanaeze blow hot over Abaribe’s arrest

    “We have nothing against President Buhari re-contesting, but nobody should threaten or cajole us.The actions, utterances and activities of any Presidential candidate for 2019 will determine if Ndigbo would identify with his or her aspiration in 2019.

    “It is obvious that all sections of the country except Ndigbo have produced Executive President of Nigeria, and nobody on moral, political and equitable ground should deny them the position at the nick of time, he emphasized,

    He restated the urgent need to create an additional state in the South East, re-visiting of the abandoned property issue and the engagement of the pro-Biafran groups in a dialogue.

  • Pay our full entitlements, pensioners beg FG

    The Association of Federal Contributory Scheme Pensioners in  Oyo State on Monday  appealed to the Federal Government to promptly  pay the full entitlements of members  so as to ameliorate their sufferings.

    The association’s President, Mr Matthew Shittu, made the call  in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan.

    Shittu said  retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) were being short-changed as a result of the non-payment of their full entitlements.

    He said that the Federal Government was still owing pensioners who joined the CPS  at inception accrued interests on their initial entitlements  as at July 2004, adding that this was   deposited with the CBN as bonds.

    “We demand from the Federal Government  the payment of our accrued  interest on our money bonded with the CBN since 2004  when the  Federal Government  retired  us.

    “They only pay our accrued  rights  and the money we contributed to the PFA leaving outstanding the accrued  interest,’’ he said.

    Read Also: ‘Respect culture of your host state’

    Shittu demanded the calculation and payment  of all accrued interests for all pensioners as at July 2004 at the government’s official interest rate.

    The association’s  president said that the seeming  silence of  the National Pension Commission (PenCom) on the accrued  interests payable to retirees under the new scheme was a cause of concern to  his members.

    He called on the Federal Government to direct the  commission, CBN, Account-General of Federation and other relevant agencies which are custodians of contributory pensions to calculate and pay the  outstanding interest of  pensioners’  bond  without delay.

    Shittu also called for  the payment of  the retirement benefits of pensioners who retired since  January 2017.

    “We have written a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, DG of  PenCom, Minister of Finance, National Assembly and other arms  of government in Nigeria for them to come to our assistance and address our plight,’’ he said.

    NAN

  • Sen. Dansadau canvasses support for youth leadership

    Sen. Saidu Dansadau, the Chairman, National Rescue Movement (NRM) says it is time for Nigerian youths to rule “to address the social and economic problems bedevilling the country.”

    He said on Monday in Maiduguri that NRM was founded primarily to encourage youth participation in politics, saying: “we have to look into the younger generation; we want to bring forth Nigerian youths so that we mentor them and let them go through some tutelage under us.

    “We want youths to take charge of the governance of this country so that they can realise their potential and change the cause of events in this country, there is hope in Nigerian youths.”

    Dansadau said that the party had adopted sound modalities to provide enabling platform to encourage youths to vie for elective positions to enable them to contribute to the development of the country.

    He explained that the party would initiate constitutional amendments to demystify the local government administration and to enhance its operations.

    He added that “NRM will put in place effective mechanism to encourage retired permanent secretaries, professors and accomplished personalities to vie for state house of assemblies and local councils’ elections.

    Read Also: ‘Youths prefer studying abroad because of decay in education’

    “The party will also change leadership recruitment through objective processes and accord concessionary candidature to women to contest gubernatorial elections.”

    The NRM chairman, therefore, urged youths to shun thuggery, money politics and reject fraudulent politicians.

    He said youths should work toward enduring democratic governance in the country.

    Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari had in June signed the Not-Too-Young-To-Run bill into law.

    The law altered sections 65, 106, 131, 177 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) to reduce the age qualification for the office of the President from 40 years to 30 years; Governor 35 to 30, Senate 35 to 30, House of Representatives 30 to 25 and State House of Assembly from 30 to 25 years.

    Founded in 2016, the bill has “Promote Increased Youth Participation in the Political Process” as its motto. 

    NAN

  • BMO replies r-APC, counts Buhari’s achievements

    The Buhari Media Organisation ( BMO ) on Monday said President Muhammadu Buhari had recorded landmark achievements within short period of time compared to past leaders that had governed the country.
    The Chairman of the organisation, Mr Austin Braimoh, said this in a statement in Abuja while reacting to remarks from the reformed All Progressives Congress (r-APC) that Buhari’s administration was a failure.
    Braimoh explained that Buhari’s government had succeeded where past leaders failed, as he has embarked on unprecedented projects and policy moves that are reforming Nigeria and delivering on the promises he made.
    “Contrary to the puerile remarks by the assembly of desperados, otherwise known as r-APC, apparently in desperation to justify their plans to exit the ruling All Progressives Congress.
    “As they look to ingratiate their personal selfish agenda, we direct their attention to the fact that the Buhari administration is currently feeding over 8 million primary school children across the country.
    “It is fixing and constructing roads in their hundreds across the country, transforming the Second Niger Bridge from mere political campaign tool as used by previous administrations to a reality.
    “Buba Galadima cannot stay in his Abuja residence, out of touch with the remarkable developments across the country and without evaluation, utter such puerile remarks,” he explained.
    The chairman said that it was unfortunate and profoundly insulting that the renegade group led by Galadima compared Buhari’s three years’ administration to that of the previous failures in the past 16 years.

    Read Also: PDP to blame for Plateau killings – BMO

    “We assert that it is evident that Mr Galadima is a man blinded by passion of hatred borne out of his inability to realise his base material aspirations in the Buhari administration.
    “He refuses to acknowledge and comprehend the quantum of challenges and work on ground for the Buhari administration to fix.”
    Braimoh wondered if any government in the past had recovered the quantum of stolen loots as recorded under the Buhari administration.
    According to him, the Anchor Borrowers Programme of the Buhari administration has been giving loans to farmers engaged in rice and wheat farming where over 250,000 farmers have benefitted.
    He added that it had led to historical high production in local food crops and particularly setting the country on the path of rice sufficiency.
    “If governments in the past had been this sincere in transforming the lives of Nigerians and invested half as much in the Nigerian people as the Buhari administration is doing, Nigeria would by now have developed characteristics very much like the proverbial Eldorado,” he said.
    Braimoh called on the Oshiomole-led APC to seek a declaration of the court to declare the Buba Galadima led r-APC illegal, and also advised that it commences processes of expelling them from the party.
    He commended genuinely aggrieved members of the party who had stuck through thick and thin with the party and are willing to work with the new leadership of the party to resolve the various challenges facing it.

     

  • We will resolve APC crisis amicably – Kalu

    A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former governor of Abia State, Dr Orji Uzor Kalu, says that the leadership of the party is currently engaging in discussions to bring back the New APC splinter group.
    Kalu said this in an interview with newsmen in Abuja on the sideline of a farewell party held in honour of the Czech Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Pavel Mikes.
    The former governor who said the APC leadership was  committed to resolving its crisis amicably, noted that the leaders were in touch with all aggrieved members to ensure that the party is not consumed by the crisis rocking it.
    Kalu, described the current crisis in the party as a family matter that would soon be brought under control.

    He said that the task which is Paramount to members of the APC was the return of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.

    “We have through our new chairman engaged most of them to get them back.

    ”The kind of jubilation, what you people want to have is not what we have at the moment, because we will control it. It is a family matter, in every family you quarrel.

    “Tinubu is busy, he is talking, everybody is busy, and in all arms of the APC we are busy talking to everybody as much as we can. Ali Modu sheriff and everybody you can think about, we are busy talking as much as we can so it is a family matter”, he said.

    He expressed concern about the attitude of some leaders in the country which he said would enhance the growth of democracy.

    He said that rather than leaders concentrating on how to bring the dividends of democracy to Nigerians they are busy fighting one another.

    According to him, Nigeria as a nation ought to have grown past this stage.

    He condemned the claim in some quarters that President Buhari condones the activities of killer herdsmen, particularly in the middle belt.

    The former governor called on state governors to do more and support the Federal government’s efforts in tackling the situation.

    “Nobody in Nigeria today is asking how this country will progress; they are just busy fighting each other which is not the process of democracy.

    ”Democracy cares about the people, it talks about what can you do for the people, it cares about the extent of benefits of democratic process that people would get.

    “We should talk about the people, 190 million Nigerians, 200 million Nigerians that have no food, no good education no good health, how to eradicate the Almajiris these are what commitment leaders should give,” he said

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    The former governor noted that the APC is on track.

    “President Buhari has done very well in most of the things.

    ”We will go back to the drawing board and put economic prosperity, that is where we are lacking,” he said.

    He said, if re-elected in 2019, Buhari would bring new blue prints and attitude to the economy, which would in turn bring prosperity to the people.

    The ambassador earlier in his remarks expressed thanks for the get together organised by the former governor.

    Mikes said that he had enjoyed his stay in the country in the last five years.

  • Cleric calls for increased efforts over killings in Nigeria

    Pastor Sarah Omakwu, Senior pastor, Family Worship Centre, FWC, Abuja   has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to intensify effort in arresting the killings in some parts of the country.

    Omakwu made the appeal in her sermon entitled “Fear not’’ on Sunday during post Mid-year thanksgiving organised by the churc the them, “Black thanksgiving’’.

    The cleric expressed concern over the herders/farmers crises and stressed to restore peace to the country.

    Omakwu read from Isaiah 41:10, admonishes Christians,‘’ Fear not, for I am with thee, be not dismayed for I am thy God, I will strengthen thee I will help thee.

    She called on Nigerians to have hope in the restoration of peace to dark spots and continue to pray for the peace of the land rather than exercising fear in their dealings.

    Read also: Youth group: Buhari can end killings

    Omakwu reminded the people that fear could make people do illogical things.

    She advised those contemplating to leave the country to drop the idea, adding “if we all decide to run, even America will not be able to contain us.“

    “This is the time to remain steadfast and pray, seeking the face of the lord for mercy.

    Omakwu called on all believers from different denominations to join in the nationwide fasting which she said would commence July 16 as part of the effort of the church to intercede for Nigeria.

    The church on July 1st celebrated the Midyear thanksgiving, where members, wearing black attire, mourned the loss of lives and property in Benue and other troubled states.

  • President Buhari needs to sustain the momentum of the last 9 months – DTCA

    Amb. Abduljalil Suleiman took over the affairs of the directorate at a time of literal and figurative darkness in its affairs,when the Directorate was heading for the precipice of eventual demise.  The Directorate had been embroiled in stagnant waters owing to low staff and management morale due to negative press reports, macro and micro power tussles among staff and aspiring leaders, gross in discipline and blackmailing petition writing. Like the larger Nigerian government inherited by President Buhari, the DTCA seemed like a hopeless case of a drainpipe for government resources with little impact on the Nigerian populace.
    Against this backdrop,  Amb. Abduljalil took over and set about his enormous take of bleeding morale and steady the ship to take the course of its original mandate. Like the thoroughbred diplomat he is, Amb. Abduljalil quietly worked to restore confidence of staff and constituted authority in the directorate, setting the stage for it to meet it’s mandate of fostering African cooperation and development through science to bridge the yawning gap between Africa and the rest of the world.
    In the spirit of change Amb. Abduljalil has restored staff confidence by putting staff welfare on the front burner,  effecting staff trainings, which hadn’t been done in 3years, conducted promotions as well as payment of all outstanding staff claims arrears. On the administrative side,  Amb Abduljalil had ensured that all utility bills he inherited were paid off, while he has restored internet access via fiber optic to the office and gotten office equipment on lease
    Began his career as protocol officer office of the president in 1983, Amb. Abduljalil learnt the ropes of governance literally at the feet of President Muhammadu Buhari, and his distinguished career thus far has been characterized by public interest, simplicity and humility. President Muhammadu Buhari need not look further than the man currently at the helm of the DTCA for his man, as Amb. Abduljalil Suleiman only needs to be appointed on a substantive basis to take the DTCA to the proper heights for the development of Africa through local solutions and ideas.
    We continue to support President Buhari’s reform work on key sectors of the economy and the institutions of government. President Buhari has made very laudable appointments so far, and in keeping with that track record,  we are certain His Excellency will give competence another chance to ensure the DTCA remains on the on the path of reform and progressiveness.
    Bar Kamal Adefila
    President.
    Amb. Mukhtar Akoshile
    National Secretary