The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nigerian Newspapers

  • How new minister survived three attempts to abort his appointment

    A POPULAR bible verse quotes God as saying that He would have mercy on whom He would have mercy. Although President Muhammadu Buhari is a Muslim, he would appear to have keyed into this bible verse with respect to the appointment of one of the recently sworn-in ministers.

    Like a cat with nine lives, the new minister was said to have survived three different attempts made by some power brokers to remove his name from the list of ministerial nominees because President Buhari insisted on each occasion that his name be restored on the list.

    The new minister himself was said to have been surprised that his name survived on the list after the numerous attempts made by the power brokers in question to remove it.

    The irony of it all is that the minister, who hails from one of the northern states, eventually played a key role helping the President to assign portfolios. So much so that those who had wanted his name removed from the ministerial list started running after him to seek favour.

    A case of the stone the builder rejected becoming the head of the corner.

  • Buhari and the population explosion ogre

    PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has finally spoken emphatically on the subject of population explosion which so many commentators have warned could upend the country or even sound its death knell. His emphatic statement may be coming a little late, but Nigerians will hope that rather than just describe it as a frightening issue, it would spur him to enunciate concrete ideas about the problem and then go ahead to tackle it in a manner that will make the country grateful to him for a very long time. The president spoke on the issue during a two-day retreat for ministers-designate in Abuja early in the week. According to him, “By average estimates, our population is close to 200 million today. By 2050, UN (United Nations) estimates show that Nigeria will be third globally, behind only India and China with a projected population of 411 million. This is a frightening prospect but only if we sit idly by and expect handouts from so-called development partners. The solution to our problems lies within us.”

    If he intends to present policy initiatives to tackle the danger, he did not mention it in his speech. Perhaps the occasion was inappropriate for such a delicate and unusual subject. However, it is hoped that soon, unlike in his first term when the issue received no significant mention or consideration, he will give full attention to a matter that threatens to unravel the country. During the same retreat, he had spoken about three other issues that arrested his attention before he assumed the presidency, to wit, security, economy and corruption, and indicated just how far his government went in handling them. He had said: “None but the most partisan will dispute that we have made headway in all three areas. First, we have rolled back the frontiers of terrorism; we are actively addressing other challenges such as kidnappings, farmer-herder violence, improving the safety of our roads, railways, air traffic and fire control capacities. Second, we are steadily turning the economy round through investment in agriculture and manufacturing, shoring up our foreign reserves, curbing inflation and improving the country’s infrastructure. Third, we have recovered hundreds of billions of stolen assets and are actively pursuing control measures to tackle leakages in public resources. We will not let up in fighting corruption.”

    If the president could gloat over his achievements, especially concerning the three main objectives he set for himself at the inception of his first term, surely he would want to make future similar boasts regarding an issue he has rightly described as frightening, an issue that requires the most intensive and rigorous effort to control or retune into a productive and positive asset. He did not make reference to statistical facts, but he was right to suggest that something must be done urgently about the problem. Indeed, the facts and figures surrounding the problem are truly frightening. With a population growth rate hovering around 2.6 percent, a little down from about 3.5 percent some years earlier, Nigeria has become a tinderbox mainly on account of climatic and desertification challenges, poor economic management and unstable financial policies, and unimaginative political and governmental structures that produced a unitary system and constrain productivity.

    Nigeria’s population figure is believed to be about 200 million, and given the unmanageable growth rate with which it is expanding, is calculated to double every 22 years. Compounding the crisis is the rather ironic improvement in life expectancy to about 51 years at birth in 2015. Some unconfirmed estimates even put it at about 60 years in 2018. Economic growth has either been slow, less than two percent, or sometimes even managing to slip into recession, such as the country witnessed a few years ago shortly after careless economic policies caused a needless downturn. With economic growth trailing badly behind rapid population growth, Nigeria, which is the seventh most populous country in the world and the most populous in Africa, appears to be heading for disaster. In all this, over the decades, and lured by insanely cheap money, the government has been spectacularly remiss in its duties. Poor financial management policies, corruption, and profligacy have all combined to expose the country to a precarious future.

    President Buhari has drawn attention to what is probably the most pressing issue the country must contend with in the coming years. But beyond drawing attention to it, it is not certain that much else will be done to arrest the drift or mitigate the effects of the looming crisis. The population catastrophe he alludes to has been brewing for years. Neither the president in his first term nor any of his predecessors had done anything significant about it. They seemed helpless, or were uninterested in grappling with a nuisance they felt was sensitive and incurable. President Buhari says it is a frightening problem. That is an understatement. No one is sure that Nigeria has the luxury of a few more years to put a lid on the problem, as the president seems to imply. The crisis is urgent, if it is not already too late. Such an urgent crisis requires very drastic solutions, solutions that call on leaders to think outside the box and to reflect on novel panaceas or embrace structured and unorthodox ideas.

    If disaster is to be staved off, the government must take a very hard look at its financial management orthodoxies. This goes beyond fighting corruption or catching a few thieves. The government must strike at the root of the problems that engender inefficiency. The first step is to restructure the country away from huge spending on needless items such as bloated bureaucracies and bogus political institutions. Parliamentary spending has become uncontrollable partly because the parliament is unwieldy and costly, and partly because the country’s political structure itself commits everyone to a centralised rather than a federal system. In addition, the configurations of states is more than the country needs or can sustain, and bureaucracies are unwisely and needlessly replicated. Funds that should be allocated to capital and infrastructural needs are senselessly spent on recurrent and unproductive needs. In fact most states are not viable and have become a national and unbearable burden.

    But in addition to tightening Nigeria’s fiscal supports and restructuring the polity, it is also urgent for the government to jettison its parochial predilections and seek out policies and programmes that would not in turn produce future crises. Land and grazing policies, for instance, must reflect modernisation trends, away from backward, ancient, crisis-ridden and ethnic-inspired policies. Climate change is real and unrelenting. The government must find practicable and lasting solutions to desertification. Israel did it; others have done it; Nigeria can also do it. Instead of conniving at ethnic-inspired seizure of lands under the aegis of grazing policies, the government must face the reality of the moment and think of the future. But can they?

    Population growth cannot be arrested overnight, especially with the subtle hints by some analysts that larger population figures are an electoral asset. After all, the initial failure of the polio immunisation programme in some parts of Nigeria was attributed to suspicion that the programme was designed to reduce or limit population increases in certain states. But in the long run, something major must be done to check the crippling expansion of population growth and to take more and better cognisance of economic growth policies. Checking population expansion must also go hand-in-hand with other social, political and economic policies to ensure sound financial management, sensible and efficient bureaucracies, and a far better political cum economic structure designed to take care of the needs of the future. What is not tenable is to make noise over the issue, label it as frightening, and end up doing nothing about it. If nothing significant is done now, the country must prepare for apocalypse.

  • US massive wire frauds: EFCC’ll fish out suspects, Magu vows

    The Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu has declared the agency will fish out some of the 77 Nigerian suspects involved in massive wire fraud schemes in the United States.

    He said he suspected that the number of Nigerian suspects would be more than 77 going by the joint operation of the EFCC and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the past few months.

    He said the EFCC is on the watch-out and will not leave any stone unturned.

    He said the EFCC has been cooperating with FBI on cybercrimes.

    Magu, who opened up while receiving the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Diaspora Commission, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said the EFCC will fully cooperate with FBI.

    A 252-count federal grand jury unsealed on Thursday charged 77 Nigerian nationals with participating in a massive conspiracy to steal millions of dollars through a variety of fraud schemes.

    Out of 80 suspects, it accused the 77 Nigerians of  laundering the funds through a Los Angeles-based money laundering network as uncovered by the FBI.

    The indictment was unsealed after law enforcement authorities, led by the FBI, arrested 14 defendants across the United States with 11 of those arrests taking place in the Los Angeles region.

    But Magu said there will be no hiding place for anyone no matter how highly placed.

    He said: “We’ll cooperate with other stakeholders and other law enforcement agencies in this country and outside the country like the FBI and the NCA and other law enforcement agencies in the neigbouring countries to make sure we deal with this issue.

    “We’ll also deal with all Nigerians who connive with other Nigerians just like the one that just happened where want to do everything to defraud this country.

    “I told you that it was a joint operation here in Nigeria. I don’t have the details now and we have not been contacted but they’ve acknowledged our participation in their release but I do not have the details because what we have is even more than 77 maybe we must have screened some out.

    “Maybe the information they’ve given us did not include the operations they’ve carried both here and America. We need to go through the record to give you the exact figures.

    “When you go outside this country, the search exercise they subject you to the moment they realize you are a Nigerian is humiliating. So if we don’t address this and allow the activities of the 419ers to resume, it will be bad.

    “For us at the EFCC, we’ll continue to cooperate with both within and outside Nigeria to stop this menace. I want you to give us information and we’ll raid all their hideouts.”

    He described the indictment of 77 Nigerians as very sad and unfortunate.

    He added: “It is very sad that the era of this 419ers is coming back. I remember we worked with the American FBI particularly in Lagos and its environment in an operation tagged ‘Wire-Wire’. They (FBI) mentioned that we are one of the agencies that actually participated in the operation and it was very successful.

    “But only to come out with the list of this 77 Nigerians is very unfortunate.

    “Meanwhile, it is not that we are not doing anything here; we are working and reenergizing to storm their hideouts. We’ll also cooperate with our partners. Last time we were in Ghana because when the heat was on them, most of them were operating from Ghana.

    “We’ll cooperate with our partners to check the menace of Yahoo Boys because it is a borderless crime because you cannot do it alone. So, I’m happy that the Americans participated in the operation.

    “I also want the media people to help us tell Nigerians because some people don’t still believe that the activities of these Yahoo Yahoo Boys are still strong. We have a situation where we have Mothers of Yahoo Yahoo Association, I don’t know whether you’ve heard of that.

    “Whenever we arrest their children, they’ll gather around our offices pleading for the release of their children. So I want you to help us sensitize Nigerians so that people will frown at the menace of 419.”

    On her part, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa said the situation was embarrassing.

    She said Nigeria is not a country of 419 people.

    She said:  “We have 77 Nigerians allegedly being involved in cybercrime in one fell swoop. We’ve stressed that these Nigerians are innocent until proven guilty. It is a court indictment, they will have to go to court, they have to be tried but we are demanding fair trial for them and good consular services for them.

    “And we really need to affirm that they are not all Nigerians. But it is a very embarrassing situation to have out of 80 people (suspects) 77 from Nigeria allegedly. Just last week, there was a cybercrime case with a young Nigerian too.

    “When things like this happen, it dents the image of country, however, that’s not who we are as a people, a few people committing crime should not tarnish the image of the country of 200 million people. So we’ll keep emphasizing that we are not going to accept the stereotype.

    “However, we want the whole world to see that we are doing something about cybercrime that’s why we are here at the EFCC to say Nigerians in the Diaspora count on you to tackle cybercrime effectively as they tackling corruption in Nigeria so we hope that EFCC Will ensure that even those ones in Nigeria will not be supported. We said just go voluntarily if they need you and I’m sure Nigeria will support their extradition if they so ask.

    “So Mr. Chairman, we just want you to reassure the world that we are not a nation of 419ners because we have an EFCC that is doing everything possible to put a stop to the menace.”

    “The Commission will be working with the EFCC to have a special desk to tackle cases like this whether it is about fraud or any other related issues. So we have a desk with EFCC for Nigerians in the Diaspora to complain to whether you’ve been cheated or otherwise and I’m sure EFCC can provide those answers to this problem.”

  • Communications minister vows to lift millions out of poverty

    Also on assumption of duty, the Minister of Communications, Dr Isa Ali Pantami, said he was ready to work with officials of the ministry to use Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to lift 50 million Nigerians out of poverty.

    The Minister urged officials and staff of the ministry to brace up with the challenges of meeting the target handed over to them by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    He said President Buhari had set a target for the ministry to lift 50 million Nigerians out of poverty within the next few years by leveraging on the vast opportunities in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector.

    Read Also: Promises of new dawn as ministers resume

    The Minister said: “The challenges facing Nigeria are well known to all of us. I do not need to itemise them. However, we know the role ICT can play to reduce these challenges significantly. I am therefore urging every one of you to sit up and work.

    “I agree with the Permanent Secretary on the directive given by Mr President that we must lift 50 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next few years. It is our duty to do so. And I believe we can achieve this target.

    “There are lots of challenges in the ICT sector, and there are lots of opportunities as well. Therefore, we will do our best to live up to the expectations of the President.”

  • Church celebrates 60th anniversary, prays for Nigeria

     

    METHODIST Church Nigeria, Diocese of Lagos Central, Ago-Ijaye Circuit, has concluded plans to hold her 60th Anniversary Celebration.

    It is scheduled to take place first Sunday of September.

    However, activities marking the anniversary would commence in August with a Bible quiz.

    Chairman of the Planning Committee, Sir Ayorinde Thomas, said there would be holy communion service in the cathedral during which prayers would be offered for peace in the country, for Methodist church Nigeria and for the circuit in particular.

    Speaking at a press conference, in Lagos, Ayorinde added the ceremony would accompany N50m fundraising.

    According to him, letters and invitation cards had been widely distributed for the event which he said would take place at the victory hall of the cathedral

  • Minister of State for Steel and Mines promises commitment to duties

    The Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Uchechukwu S. Ogah, has thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for appointing him a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    He promised to work collaboratively with his counterpart in the ministry in transforming the sector export, earn foreign exchange and create wealth in line with President Buhari’s next level agenda.

    Ogah while thanking the Abia State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and his supporters for their support towards being confirmed as a minister, promised to work assiduously to ensure that the vision of President Muhammadu Buhari was achieved.

    A release by his media aide, Great Imo Jonathan, said the minister is happy to be called upon to be a part of the team that will confront the challenges in the sector, stressing that Ogah enjoys breaking new grounds.

    Read Also: Promises of new dawn as ministers resume

    According to Jonathan, the Minister of State for Mines and Steel wants Nigerians to be expectant because the sector will be reinvigorated.

    Meanwhile, the leadership of the APC in Abia State has lauded the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to choose Ogah, its 2019 gubernatorial candidate, to serve as a minister in his cabinet.

    The party said it was happy that President Buhari listened to them by not appointing the likes of former minister of Trade and Investment, Hon. Okechukwu Emelamah, who the party had accused of undermining it while he served as a minister to serve in the current cabinet.

    The chairman of the party, Hon. Donatus Nwankpa, said the party was confident that Ogah would deliver on the mandate of the president who appointed him as a minister.

    He said: “The Abia APC is happy that President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Uche Ogah as a minister in his current cabinet.

    “It is a very welcome development. You know that he was our gubernatorial candidate.

  • Aregbesola vows to set new internal security agenda

    Following President Muhammadu Buhari’s allocation of portfolios to newly appointed ministers on Wednesday, the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has hit the ground running.

    Aregbesola immediately visited the ministry and acquainted himself with the Permanent Secretary, Barr. Georgina Ehuriah and the top management of the ministry, vowing to reshape the ministry positively.

    “We will change the narrative of internal security,” the new minister said.

    Aregbesola instructed Ehuriah, who had been in charge since the dissolution of the last cabinet, to continue running the ministry until Monday when he will formally take over.

    “I will come to take over on Monday. I give the Permanent Secretary the grace to run the ministry till then. We will be ready by Monday to take on the huge assignment,” the former Osun State governor said.

    He assured the staff of the ministry and personnel of all paramilitary agencies under its purview of purposeful leadership.

    Read Also: Aregbesola tasks NSCDC on intelligence gathering

    He said: “I promise you a realistic, reasonable and commendable leadership,” urging the staff of the ministry to be ready for more work as he will be demanding much more from them.

    The Permanent Secretary of the ministry welcomed the minister to the ministry, saying that the ministry needed a focused person like him to lead it because of its strategic position in the security architecture of the country.

    She said the proper handing over ceremony will take place on Monday.

    On Thursday, the minister started a tour of the agencies under the Ministry of Interior.

    At the the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Aregbesola said the outfit will, among other activities, pay attention to intelligence gathering.

    He said the NSCDC will not rest on its oars as it provides support for the leading security agencies in the country, adding that President Muhammadu Buhari’s major concern is how to improve security and the economy and fight corruption.

    Speaking earlier, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Interior, Barr. Georgina Ehuriah said the minister was the best candidate to take the ministry to the next level.

  • South West governors plan network on security –Fayemi

    EKITI State Governor Kayode Fayemi said on Friday that South West governors were planning a western Nigeria security network in an  effort to tackle security challenges in the country.

    Fielding questions from newsmen on the sideline of the first Governors’ Lecture Series of the Mass Communication Department of the University of Lagos in conjunction with the university’s Multi Media Centre of Excellence, Fayemi said details of the security network would be unveiled in due course.

    The lecture is an annual communication in governance agenda setting initiative.

    “For us in South West, we deliberated on this over the last couple of months and have met with our traditional institutions,” he said.

    “We have also met with our non-state actors in the field of security, as well as our self-determination groups, and we have come up with a western Nigeria security network that is going to be announced soon.

    Read Also: Fayemi woos investors to Ekiti

    “By then, you will have a full picture of what we are doing.”

    The governor noted that the main security outfits in the country were intensifying efforts to fight crimes but said that more needed to be done.

    “We want it sustained and comprehensive. “There is a longer term response to insecurity, and we cannot remove it from correlation to other challenges.

    “There are economic challenges, inequality in the land and poverty in the society.

    “There is a direct correlation between insecurity and inequality, and we must tackle that by ensuring that we create an enabling environment for jobs to be provided for Nigerians seeking to work,” he said.

  • Defence Minister: we’ll overhaul security architecture

    The Minister of Defence, Major Gen. Bashir Magashi (rtd), resumed work at the Ministry of Defence Headquarters on Wednesday and immediately entered into a close-door meeting with top officials of the ministry to deliberate on the way forward.

    The Minister was received by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mrs Nuratu Batagarawa, alongside senior directors and top military officers.

    Sources close to the maiden meeting of the Minister with the top officials of the Ministry said the Minister expressed determination to restore peace into troubled parts of the country, especially seeing to the speedy conclusion of the ongoing military operations in the Northeast.

    Read Also: FCT minister vows to consolidate on developmental strides

    The Minister told the officials that President Buhari’s top priority is to ensure that peace returns to the Northeast, while military operations across the country to checkmate the activities of bandits, kidnappers and cattle rustlers and other criminals would be carried to the backyards of the troublemakers with a view to restoring orderliness across the nation, the source added.

    According to the source who spoke on condition of anonymity, the minister is said he was prepared to meet the target set by the President on the issue of security by ensuring a complete overhaul of the entire security architecture of the country.

    The source said the minister would also meet with the directors in charge of different services and the Service Chiefs for detailed briefing on the situations on the ground and the way forward.

  • FCT minister vows to consolidate on developmental strides

    The Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Bello, has pledged to consolidate on the existing solid foundation for rapid development of the territory.

    Bello gave the assurance on Wednesday when he assumed duty alongside the Minister of State for FCT, Ramatu Tijani Aliyu, at the FCTA Secretariat in Abuja.

    He also said he would work under the general policy guidelines given to him by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Bello explained that Buhari was very clear on the direction he wants the country to move in the next four years. “And the direction is not to benefit him as a person but a direction that will take Nigeria to where it truly belongs.

    Read Also: Federal cabinet: Ondo stakeholders protest junior minister portfolio

    “What the administration did during the first tenure was basically to prepare ground and establish foundation. What we need to do now is to build upon the foundation that has been established

    “I thank President Buhari for having decided to reappoint me as a minister out of so many eminently qualified persons from my state and also decided to bring me back to the FCT.

    “I also want to thank President Buhari for bringing back the tradition of FCT having a minister of state.”

    He thanked the management staff of the FCTA for the tremendous work they had been doing over the years, which he said had made Abuja a very proud city.

    The Minister urged the FCTA staff to guard the city jealously, saying, “You have to work hard to build the city because it is a great city established by our predecessors.