The Nation Newspaper

Tag: PRESIDENCY

  • Buhari yet to get oil bill, says Presidency

    The Presidency yesterday said the harmonised Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) passed by the National Assembly on March 28, is yet to get to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent.

    Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, discloed this in a two paragraph statement dated May 16th and made available to State House correspondents.

    He said his findings revealed that the Bill is still undergoing standard operating legislative processes of the National Assembly preparatory to transmission.

    He said: “Further to several enquiries by the media, interest groups, and the public in respect of witholding the named Bill, may I please state that the said Bill has not yet been transmitted by the National Assembly to President (Buhari).

    “From my enquiries, the Bill is still undergoing standard operating legislative processes of the National Assembly preparatory to transmission, please,” he stated.

    The Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (upstream), Omotayo Alasoadura, had promised that the harmonised bill would be presented to Buhari on March 30.

  • Buhari yet to get petroleum bill – Presidency

    The Presidency said on Wednesday the harmonised Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) passed by the National Assembly on March 28, is yet to get to the desk of President Muhammadu Buhari for assent.

    The Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, stated this in a two- paragraph statement dated May 16 and made available to State House correspondents in Abuja.

    Enang said his findings revealed that the bill is still undergoing standard operating legislative processes of the National Assembly preparatory to transmission.

    He said: “Further to several enquiries by the media, interest groups and the public in respect of the Bill, may I please state that the said Bill has not yet been transmitted by the National Assembly to President.

    “From my enquiries, the Bill is still undergoing standard operating legislative processes of the National Assembly preparatory to transmission, please.”

    The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (upstream), Omotayo Alasoadura, has promised that the harmonised bill would be presented to Buhari on March 30.

     

     

     

     

  • Presidency’‘ll continue to uphold truth’

    The Presidency is sincere in its dealings with Nigerians, President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesman Femi Adesina said yesterday.

    Speaking as a guest at the 2018 World Communication Day, organised by the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, Adesina also pleaded with the media to be to patriotic in publishing stories that would not plunge the country into chaos.

    Adesina said: I charge Nigerian journalists to realise that it is our country and it is the only one we have.

    “If we publish things that will turn the country upside down, then we don’t have any other.”

    On hate speech he said: “When it comes to hate speech, the onus is on every Nigerian to check himself. Some people originate hate speeches and some people transmit them without verification which can destroy our country.

    “With this government, truth cannot be killed, bent or sacrificed for anything”

    In his homily, Social Communications Director, Fr Patrick Alumuku, advised the government not to use the rhetorics of hate speech to gag the press, stating that the country had reached a democratic stage of media freedom.

    Alumuku, however, cautioned the media not to use its freedom for practice what he called “yellow journalism.”

    He explained that “the Catholic Church has always supported any government in power until when it sees that the government is not paying attention to the needs of the people.”

  • Presidency shrouding Buhari’s health in secrecy, says PDP

    THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has decried alleged plot by the Presidency to keep shrouding President Muhammadu Buhari’s illness in secrecy, when the ruling administration prides itself as transparent.

    It noted that Buhari cannot effectively discharge his official duties as a result of his ill health.

    The PDP said the President’s latest medical trip to the United Kingdom (UK) was a confirmation that “President  Buhari is unwell, ailing and unfit to attend to state matters”.

    Addressing the reporters in Abuja yesterday, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, said: “Nigerians will recall that before the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in April, Mr. President, without transmitting a letter to the National Assembly, as required by the constitution, undertook a private visit to the UK, where his doctors are known to reside, five clear days ahead of CHOGM. Nigerians were left in the dark for the period despite demands for full disclosure by the PDP.

    “Only last week, two days after his departure from the United States, where he had gone for a state visit, Mr. President went ‘missing’ again. When concerns began to mount on his whereabouts, the Presidency claimed he had a ‘technical stopover’ in the UK, citing flight issues, only for revelations to emerge from the same Presidency, on Monday, that Mr. President was actually in the UK to see his doctors.

    “In these circumstances, Nigerians were taken for granted, deceived and treated like lesser men and women without reasoning capacity, while our nation, at those periods, was left with no leadership as Mr. President refused to transmit power as required by the 1999 Constitution, as amended”.

    Stating that it has no objection to the President taking care of his ailing health, the party said Nigerians have come to detest the alleged deception trailing the handling of Buhari’s  health issues.

     

     

     

     

  • Why Buhari stopped over in London, by Presidency

    THE Presidency yesterday gave reasons why President Muhammadu Buhari stopped over in London after his official visit to the United States (U.S.).

    A statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said that there is a limit to the distance the President’s smaller plane can cover.

    He explained that the President’s big jet has gone for repairs.

    Shehu said: “The big jet is under repair. It has been taken for major repairs. So, the President is using a small plane and there is a limit to the distance the small plane can cover.

    “So, the technical stopover I talked about is that the journey from U.S. to Abuja is broken into two.

    “Technical stopover is that the plane stops at a point, refuel, do some checks and then proceed on the journey.

    “This is very normal. There is nothing unusual about it. In any case, they are already on their way back home.

     

  • Buhari performed well during meeting with Trump – Presidency

    The Presidency on Thursday described President Muhammadu Buhari’s meeting with his United States counterpart, Donald Trump, as very successful.

    In a statement issued by the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, the Presidency said Buhari performed better than expectations of some Nigerians.

    President Buhari, he said, has returned to the country satisfied, having got all he wanted from the U.S government.

    In a titled: “Takeaways from the Auspicious Meeting between Presidents Muhammadu Buhari and Donald Trump,” the Presidency said: “This note is written by one who is mindful of the fact that there are Nigerians, I mean the opponents of this administration, who have prayed and prayed very hard that our President in the course of his historic visit to the White House on Monday, April 30, 2018, would stumble badly or come back with nothing.

    “President Buhari, to the disappointment of this group, delivered a calm, brilliant performance. He refused to be provoked and did not get angry at the taunting. He instead turned his attention to the task at hand and at the end, came home satisfied that he got everything he wanted from the U.S government. The Rose Garden worked out very much for him as a routine engagement, certainly not like the make-or-break meeting as some wanted it to be.

    “It is also important that records be set straight to counter the mischief of opponents, some of whom have started rendering false narratives of a meeting to which they were neither invited nor in any way aware of its details.

    “The meeting of the two leaders happened in three phases. First, the one-on-one in which only the two of them were present. Then they had a working lunch, each leader accompanied by 10 top officials. President Buhari had with him the Governors of Ogun and Plateau; the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Justice, Industry, Trade and Investment; the Chairpersons of Senate and House of Representatives committees on international relations; the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, (NIA), the Chief of Defence Staff and Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States.

    “The U.S President had more-or-less the same representation, except that the Secretary of State who just got cleared for the job by the Senate hadn’t assumed so he was represented by the Deputy Secretary of State.

    “President Trump also brought with him the Director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) which I must emphasize, is significant to Nigeria given the fact that the U.S. remains the largest contributor to the ongoing effort to reconstruct the North East and resettle its millions of displaced persons.

    “The third engagement involving the two leaders was the joint press conference by the leaders, aired live by some major TV networks across the world.

    “First of all, it is important to state that from the very beginning, the two leaders got on very well with one another. They also shared a common respect for each other. Some key remarks made by President Trump on our President sum this up. He said President Buhari ‘is a rare leader,’ he said ‘I respect him a lot’ and said our leader had ‘succeeded in cutting down corruption.’ He called President Buhari a ‘valued partner’ and a ‘strong democrat.’

    “The two parties had agreed before the meeting that discussions will be on three key issues namely Security/Counter Terrorism, Trade, and Development of Democracy in Nigeria.

    “On security, the Nigerian delegation was pleased from the onset that the Trump administration had agreed to the major sale of military equipment to Nigeria. Team Nigeria was equally pleased about the much-increased role of the U.S in assisting the efforts to defeat terrorism in Nigeria and the Lake Chad region in general.

    “The President expressed appreciation for these and requested additional support to counter insurgency.

    “On the specific issue of the sale of the 12 Super Tucano A-29 warplanes and weapons to Nigeria to effectively fight terrorism, President Buhari told his American counterpart that we are pleased with this, but want delivery to be fast-tracked, given the security situation in the country.”

     

  • APC to mediate in Presidency, NASS face-off over $496m jet fund

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) is to mediate in the feud between the executive arm of government and its members in the National Assembly in the interest of the nation’s nascent democracy as well as that of the party and the nation.

    The Senator representing Edo South Senatorial District had called on the Senate to invoke Section 143 of the Nigeria Constitution over the payment of $496m for the purchase of 12 Super Tucano fighter jets.

    Although the party said it does not have any position yet in the motion moved on Thursday by the Senator representing Edo south, Senator  Mathew Urhoghide to impeach the President, its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, said that it will continue to play its role to ensure that whatever needed to be done to ensure stability of the system is done.

    He said: “The party has no position at this time because it is a party thing. So, the party does not have a position on that. Don’t forget that the National Assembly is not made up of APC alone.

    “Our role is that we will have to continue to ensure that whatever we need to do to maintain stability in the system will have to be done.

    “That is the role we have continued to play, and in the context of this development as well, we will immediately begin to make initiatives to liaise between our own caucus in the National Assembly and the Executive to ensure that whatever is the issue between the two arms of government and our party members are immediately resolved in the interest of stability, in the interest of the country and in the interest of the party as well as in the interest of our democracy.”

  • Presidency, Senate face-off deepens over stolen mace

    The festering crisis of confidence between the Presidency and the National Assembly may have deepened.

    There were signs yesterday that the Senate may have resolved to dump all Executive communications sent to it for action.

    The resolution to “keep all Executive communications in view” was one of the high points of about three hours closed session the upper chamber held yesterday.

    The April 18 invasion of the Senate chamber by thugs was said to have dominated discussions at the closed session.

    It was gathered that Senator Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa West) was confronted by his colleagues over his alleged role in the invasion of the Senate chamber.

    Sources said that Adamu was pointedly called  an “enemy of democracy” when he allegedly insinuated that “there is no smoke without fire”.

    It was gathered that most senators at the secret meeting insisted that “the sustained persecution of the Senate by the Executive must stop”.

    The senators, it was gathered, decided that “they must defend themselves as well as democracy.”

    It was learnt that the lawmakers also vowed that “whatever comes from the executive will not be considered as long as the persecution continues”.

    Asked what specifically the Senate decided to dump, the sources refused to go into details but noted that “the decision was near unanimous”.

    One said: “It was obvious that most senators were not comfortable with the sustained onslaught against the National Assembly, particularly against the Senate.”

    He said that most senators agreed that the alleged attacks were being “orchestrated and sustained by the Presidency”.

    According to the source, discussion of the invasion of the Senate chamber by thugs and the role allegedly played by some senators generated a lot of heat in the chamber.

    He said that senators agreed that the invasion was “too daring” to be considered as ordinary.

    He said that although the mace, the symbol of authority of the Senate, had been recovered by the police, “many of our colleagues insisted that the matter must not be swept under the carpet”.

    Senator Kabiru Marafa (Zamfara Central) was said to have accused some senators of “steadily causing division in the Senate”.

    He was also said to have claimed that “many of those promoting the division in the Senate were not originally with President Muhammadu Buhari”.

    Marafa was said to have insisted that whereas he and some other senators followed the party’s line at the beginning of the 8th Senate, others who backed Senate President Abubakar Bukola Saraki defied party directives to install Saraki.

    The Zamfara senator, the source said, was categorical that some senators were promoting, and sponsoring seeds of discord in the Senate.

    He was also said to have insisted that the actions of some senators partly led to the April 18 invasion.

    It was gathered that shortly after Marafa spoke, the former Nasarawa State governor, Adamu, took the floor to caution senators to be wary of the discussion of the invasion.

    Adamu was also said to have cautioned against the insinuation that Senator Ovie Omo-Agege was linked to the incident.

    The source noted that “the outburst of Adamu to the effect that there is no smoke without fire” infuriated many senators.

    He said that Adamu drew the ire of other senators when he insisted: “There is no smoke without fire, and I tell you there is big fire behind this smoke.”

    The source said Marafa particularly and some other descended on Adamu, calling him names, including “a threat to democracy”.

    He said that the session almost became rowdy when many senators rose in anger to attack Adamu.

    He said that Adamu was accused of failing to play the role of a statesman even though his age and experience in government showed him as one.

    Adamu was also accused of being “a threat to democracy and sustainable peace in the chamber”.

    After the closed session, the Senate at plenary announced at a short session that a joint committee with the House of Representatives would probe the incident.

    Saraki, who announced this, said: “This legislature is a true representation of democracy and as long as we defend this legislature, we defend democracy in this country,

    “We also resolved the need to tighten the security at the National Assembly and I’m calling on all members of the public to please cooperate with us.

    “Clearly, there are some loopholes here and we need to tighten them.

    “A constitution of a joint committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives also resolved to investigate the incident of the 18th of April, to look at the factors leading to it and to ensure that such never happens again at the National Assembly.

    “We also directed our committee on Security, Intelligence and Police to engage with the Director of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Inspector General of Police to look at how to strengthen the security of the National Assembly to ensure that these security lapses will not reoccur.”

  • #BBOG accuses Presidency of trampling on members’ rights

    THE #BringBackOurGirls (#BBOG) group has accused the Presidency of trampling on its members’ rights by allegedly attacking them with police and preventing them from their regular sit-outs.

    The group, which was allegedly attacked by policemen with teargas on Monday at the Unity fountain, also accused the police of confiscating their chairs.

    Leaders of the group, former Minister of Education Oby Ezekwesili, Aisha Yesufu and Florence Ozor, in a statement yesterday, said the group has witnessed repressive attacks from the police force since April 19, 2018.

    The statement reads: “Our #BringBackOurGirls movement is widely acknowledged for the civil and decorous advocacy. We have used our daily sit-outs since April 30, 2014 to sustain our demand for justice of rescue for our 219 #ChibokGirls, who were abducted from their school in Borno State on April 14, 2014.

    “Inexplicably, on April 13, 2018, being the eve of the tragic commemoration of the fourth year since the abduction of our remaining 112 Chibok Girls, the gun-wielding Nigeria Police men in their hundreds attacked and prevented our members from holding our daily sit-outs at our usual advocacy space on the grounds of Unity Fountain in Abuja. The police confiscated and took away our chairs, manhandled members of our movement, and shot canisters of tear gas at our peaceful assembly without any cause.

    “The next day, April 14 2018, we marked the fourth year of the tragedy of our #ChibokGirls abduction with our second Annual #ChibokGirls Distinguished Lecture at the Yar’adua Centre, following which we decided to suspend our daily sit-outs for 72 hours.”

    It added: “Our decision was intended to give the Presidency, the Federal Government, and the Nigeria Police reasonable time to reflect on and redress the provocative violation of our constitutionally-guaranteed rights to freedoms of association, peaceful assembly, movement, thought and conscience, as well as that of expression. We had, therefore, hoped that following the three-day suspension of our activities, we would resume our sit-outs on April 19, without any further attacks from the Nigeria Police and that our chairs would be returned to the location.

    “Sadly, since resuming our daily meetings at the Unity Fountain three days later, on April 19, 2018, the police continued to prevent us from holding our sit-outs and kept up with attacks on our members.”

    The group said there was no justification for the attacks being launched against its movement, “which appears intended to shut us down from demanding accountability for our abducted fellow citizens from the Presidency and the Federal Government”.

    It vowed that its members would not cease advocating until all the “girls are back and/or accounted for and closure given to their parents”.

     

  • Presidency trampling on our rights – #BBOG

    The #BringBackOurGirls (#BBOG) advocacy group on Tuesday accused the Presidency of trampling on their rights by attacking them with police and preventing them from their regular sit outs.

    The group, which was attacked with tear gas by police at the Unity fountain on Monday, also accused the police of confiscating their chairs.

    Leaders of the group, a former Minister of Education Oby Ezekwesili, Aisha Yesufu and Florence Ozor, said in a statement in Abuja that the group has witnessed repressive attacks from the police since April 19.

    The group said: “Condemnable and vicious attack on the #BringBackOurGirls movement by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration using the Nigeria Police Force.

    “Our #BringBackOurGirls movement is widely acknowledged for the civil and decorous advocacy. We have used our Daily Sit-Outs since April 30, 2014 to sustain our demand for justice and rescue for our 219 #ChibokGirls who were abducted from their school in Borno State on April 14, 2014.

    “Inexplicably, on April 13, 2018 being the eve of the tragic commemoration of the 4th year since the abduction of our remaining 112 ChibokGirls, the gun-wielding Nigeria Police men in their hundreds attacked and prevented our members from holding our daily sit outs at our usual advocacy space on the grounds of Unity Fountain in Abuja. The police confiscated and took away our chairs, manhandled members of our movement, and shot canisters of tear gas at our peaceful assembly without any cause.

    “The next day, April 14 2018, we marked the 4th year of the tragedy of our #ChibokGirls abduction with our 2nd Annual #ChibokGirls Distinguished Lecture at the Yar’adua Center following which we decided to suspend our Daily Sit-Outs for 72 hours. Our decision was intended to give the Presidency, the Federal Government, and the Nigeria Police reasonable time to reflect on and redress the provocative violation of our constitutionally-guaranteed rights to freedoms of association, peaceful assembly, movement, thought and conscience, as well as that of expression. We had therefore hoped that following the three-day suspension of our activities, we would resume our Sit-Outs on April 19, without any further attacks from the Nigeria Police and that our chairs would be returned to location.

    “Sadly, since resuming our daily meetings at the Unity Fountain three days later, on April 19, 2018, the Nigeria Police continued to prevent us from holding our sit-outs and kept up with attacks on our members. Suffice it to say that in the last five days (from Thursday April 19) the repressive strikes of the Nigeria Police against our movement and our members have become more brazen and aggravated.

    “Only yesterday, Monday, April 23, 2018, the police not only prevented us once again from holding our sit-out, but deliberately shot tear gas canisters directly at our members at very close range with intent to harm. With the use of online streaming capabilities, we have placed still and video images of this tragic and heinous acts of the police against our peaceful gathering in the public domain for all to see. (To view these, please check our Twitter account @BBOG_Nigeria.)

    “As a mark of our commitment to our missing 112 #ChibokGirls in captivity, Leah Sharibu of the abducted #DapchiGirls, and five other #DapchiGirls unaccounted for, as well as other abducted citizens, we have refused to allow these unwarranted attacks, threat to life, and such other inconveniences to deter us. And so, we marked Day 1,470 of our #ChibokGirls abduction and Day 1,455 of our daily advocacy with a sit-out on the edge of the Unity Fountain.

    “There is no justification for the attacks being launched against our movement which appears intended to shut us down from demanding accountability for our abducted fellow citizens from the Presidency and the Federal Government. It is inconceivable that for simply and peacefully asking the Federal Government to fulfill its duties and obligations to our #ChibokGirls, Leah Sharibu, and others, our democratic freedoms are being trampled upon by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari.

    “We have vowed and recommitted ourselves to our cause and shall not cease advocating until all our girls are back and/or accounted for and closure given to their parents. We shall not stop until our girls are given the justice due them by our President and his administration.”