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Tag: removal

  • Beyond the removal of service chiefs

    It is natural that controversy trailed the recent appointment of new military chiefs by President Muhammadu Buhari. This is because most of the appointments made since inception of this administration have gone the way of the North. Putting sentiments aside, we should not be biased by ethnicity or religion of the appointees, we should be concerned about service delivery in the face of the rising wave of violence by Boko Haram in the past 60 days.

    Many had thought the relocation of Defence headquarters to the epicentre of Boko Haram insurgency would naturally lead to the rooting out of the criminals.We need to have the right army and leadership to restore peace in the Northeast.

    Buhari’s inauguration speech inspired hopes, but the insurgency is yet to fizzle out. The sacking and new appointments of service chiefs is believed to be a good decision, but reprieve must come the way of aggrieved junior officers who are being victimised for daring to complain about lack of ammunition to combat the insurgents. There should be an inquiry to know why the military has not been able to defeat the insurgents.

    Low morale, dereliction of duty, indiscipline and human rights abuses are now synonymous with the Nigerian Army. The years of neglect and misappropriations funds meant for the procurement of military hardware may have caused the Nigerian Army to bleed in competence and morality. The last three years witnessed a loss of armory and territories to the insurgents.

    The soldiers complained of their unpaid remunerations, poor weapons and logistics. While the money set aside for soldiers’ welfare was misappropriated, the officers cannot but to lament, grumble and complain. As the funds disappeared, the looters sabotaged efforts to combat the insurgency.

    Those brave and loyal officers were sent to the warfront with empty barrels by their top commanders. When they refused, they were tried for mutiny and sentenced to death. This is wrong under any known law.

    Perhaps, the reason some soldiers vent their anger on innocent civilians is to draw attention to the low into which the military has sunk. Junior officers have been relegated and are at the receiving end of ruthless treatment by their fat and highly-unprincipled bosses, who amass wealth at the expense of the junior officers.

    Many may blame the Federal Government for underfunding of the security agencies, whereas the blame should be for military top brass.

    A look at the military shows that merit has been sacrificed, starting from recruitment process to engagement of the personnel. Some join the military by political connections and they see their job as employment and not service. This is why many recruits are not prepared to die for the nation. They joined the army to eke out a living. If they rise through the ranks, they would constitute impediment to the growth of the military.

    Unfortunately, soldiers who are willing to defend the country against aggression are poorly paid and lack equipment to fight in wars. This is tantamount to sending an unarmed man to a battle where gun booms and you expect him to come back a hero.

    No wonder President Buhari said, sometimes ago, that “Boko Haram would give you an inventory of the weapons in their possession”. Does it mean that the military has lost its essence? Does it mean soldiers are now to be seen as powerless fighters while Boko Haram continues to overrun our land? The fact is that the nation has lost its best soldiers in the war against insurgency, because of lack of weapons should send a message to the country.

    We must not continue to watch while we lose our gallant soldiers, because some people did not give them the right ammunition to face the enemies.

    The military leadership was angry when Amnesty International criticised it over human rights abuses and unlawful killings in villages of Borno and Yobe states. Why should we expect unpaid soldiers not to vent their spleen on innocent civilians? Before the last administration threw money at the battle against the insurgents, transfer of officers to the North used to be seen as a death sentence. Now, many soldiers want to go to the Northeast because of the mouth-watering allowances.

    Beyond the sacking of the service chiefs, the government must investigate how Defence budget has been spent in the last four years. It is good we have new service chiefs but the activities of the past leadership should be reviewed. The president should ensure that perpetrators of corrupt practices are brought to book.

    • Tobi is an ND II student of International Institute of Journalism, Ado-Ekiti Campus
  • PDP insists on removal of INEC chair

    PDP insists on removal of INEC chair

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday insisted on the immediate removal of the newly appointed Acting Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mrs. Amina Zakari.

    The party said information at its disposal confirmed that Mrs. Zakari enjoys “a strong relationship” with President Muhammadu Buhari and an unnamed APC Governor in the Northwest.

    National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Olisa Metuh, alleged in a statement that the unnamed governor was collaborating with APC to ensure that INEC, under Zakari, posts Resident Electoral Commissioners of its choice to Kogi and Bayelsa states ahead of the forthcoming governorship elections in the two states

    The party also alleged that there were moves to use the period of Mrs. Zakari’s stay as head of the Commission to tinker with electoral personnel and materials for the two states in favour of the ruling APC.

    “President Buhari, in appointing Mrs. Zakari, failed to take into cognizance the moral call to detach himself from the operation of the electoral body, thereby completely eroding the independence of the Commission”, Metuh said.

    He said that Zakari’s competence and performance in office were not the issue, but “her closeness to the President and some key APC leaders” smacked of nepotism and called to question the independence of the electoral body under her watch.

    According to him, “We want Nigerians to know that with this appointment, INEC has been stripped of its independence and can no longer command the confidence and respect of the citizens and all other critical stakeholders in the nation’s electoral process.

    “We however find it astonishing, discouraging and disheartening that the spokesperson of the President will address Nigerians and lie to the entire citizenry that Mrs. Zakari never had any relationship with the President or an APC Governor in the Northwest. This is the height of deception coming from the respected office of the President of our dear country.

    “We ask: is the spokesperson of the President, oblivious of the public fact that the Acting Chairman of INEC was once a staff of Afri-Project Consortium, a company well associated with the President?

    “Is he, by any means, feigning ignorance of the fact that Mrs. Zakari also worked in the past as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Social Development and later, that of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Federal Capital Development Authority, then under a current APC governor of the Northwest?

    “How much of Mrs. Zakari’s roles in the last general elections does the spokesperson of the President, who has just been appointed, know to warrant his brazen defence?

    “Even where we concede to the worn-out argument that the President has the powers to appoint any person he deems fit as the INEC Chairman, does moral obligation not demand that in doing so he should take into cognizance the sensitivity of the position? Otherwise he can as well appoint his wife or brother as the electoral umpire on an argument of merit.”

     

     

     

  • Apapa residents seek removal of trailers, tankers

    Apapa residents seek removal of trailers, tankers

    Apapa residents have urged the Lagos State government to restrict the movement of tankers and trailers into the area.

    The restriction, they argue, is to prevent further damage to the roads and abate the health hazards the trucks constitute to residents.

    At a stakeholders’ summit held at the Apapa Local Government Secretariat, residents said it had become urgent to relocate these trucks to Ogun State, where land is available for parking.

    The Executive Secretary of Apapa Local Government Area, Mrs Bolaji Dada, said residents were facing many challenges as a result of the menace constituted by the traffic snarl, caused by these heavy duty vehicles.

    She said the consequences of the gridlock on the people’s health and economic power could only be imagined, noting that except something is urgently done, Apapa would become a nightmare and a no-go area to people who have one business or the other to transact there.

    She added that the inability of the private oil tank farm operators, and the major oil marketers to provide parking spaces for their vehicles have been identified as a major constraint, stressing that the situation led the tankers and trailers to move to the roads that would have been used by other motorists.

    ”All the available spaces at the Port have been concessioned, so there is no space for the vehicles to park. These vehicles park along the road, causing traffic slow down. They have become a burden on the council. Every now and then; I receive calls from people on the bad situation. But we in government are not magicians; everybody must contribute his quota to make Apapa traffic better again,” she said.

    Also speaking, the Executive Director, Honey Flour Mills, Rotimi Fadipe, urged law enforcement agents to ensure motorists comply with traffic rules. “Apapa has become a death-trap, everyday you travel on the road, your life is at risk. The tankers constitute danger to the lives of motorists and pedestrians alike.

    ”Terminal operators have no facilities to accommodate the number of vehicles that come do business with them. There are no data to back up the programming of vehicles. We believe some of these tankers can be kept in places like Ogun State, which has sufficient land and be called to come in batches to the port to load, instead of the present situation in which every vehicle comes in at the same time, and spend days or weeks without accessing the ports.”

    He explained that efforts should be speeded up to complete the parking space meant for the vehicles, adding that the park has capacity to accommodate about 500 vehicles.

    ”We believe that trailers or tankers that do not have entry permit should not be allowed into Apapa, there should be collaboration between the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) and the Ministry of Work and Transportation to ease the traffic problem.”

     

  • President orders removal of military check points

    President orders removal of military check points

    President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the immediate removal of military check points across the country.

    Police are now to take charge of the internal security.

    The decision was taken at the meeting the president had with military chiefs at the State House yesterday.

    It was the first major meeting the president had on his first day at work at the Presidential Villa, which he moved into on Sunday, 23 days after he was sworn into office.

    He operated from the Defence House which he used as the president-elect.

    Ministry of Defence Permanent Secretary Alhaji Ismail Aliyu, spoke to reporters after about five hours defence briefing.

    He said the Boko Haram insurgency will soon be over.

    According to him, the Lake Chad Basin Commission nations have fashioned a new strategy to tackle insecurity.

    He said: “The President has instructed the Chief of Defence Staff to get the Chief of Army Staff and Inspector General of Police to remove all the military men along the road across the country.

    “The Nigerian Armed Forces are very ready, we have briefed him. One most interesting thing about it is that we are going out much happier because he has shown to us that he is still a soldier, he has updated and enriched our strategic plans.

    “Second item that was discussed is the movement of the command centre to the NorthEast. We have briefed him (president) on how far we have reached on that and he has given us some additional assignment, but very soon the centre will be on.

    “I also want to assure Nigerians that with what we have come out with from this meeting, we are very enthusiastic that the issue of Boko Haram will soon be over.  He has given us hope that we will see peace and security in the near future .

    On what will be done differently, he said: “Now we have come as a united front, we have Chad, Cameroon, Benin and Niger. We have all strategised and we are coming out with one type of strategy that we are going to address the Boko Haram with, unlike before.

    He said that the issue of change of service chiefs did not come up.

    On the absence of the Inspector-General of Police and the Director-General of the Department of Security Service (DSS) and others from the meeting, he said: “This is not a national security meeting. This is a briefing meeting by the Ministry of Defence on the operationalisation of the Multi-National Joint Task Force and the relocation of the command control centre to the Northeast. So, it is something restricted to the ministry of Defence.”

    Buhari orders removal of soldiers from non-essential check points

    A statement on the meeting by the president’s media office said: “Buhari reaffirmed his administration’s total commitment to ending the Boko Haram  insurgency in the shortest possible time.

    “He welcomed the progress report he was given on the implementation of his order that the Military Command Control Centre  be relocated to Maiduguri.

    “President Buhari who, in keeping with the declared priorities of his government, made the meeting with defence and security chiefs the top item on his schedule on his first day at work in the Presidential Villa.

    “He also expressed satisfaction at the progress made so far in the implementation of the decision of the Lake Chad Basin Commission to fast-track the deployment of the Multinational Joint Task Force based in Ndjamena.

    “The defence and security chiefs who met with the President and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo for over three and half hours and also briefed them on the refurbishment of existing military platforms  and the acquisition of new weapons for the Armed Forces.”

  • ‘Ignore Suswam’s call for REC’s removal’

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State has urged the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, to ignore Governor Gabriel Suswam’s call for the removal of the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC).

    The party’s Chairman, Comrade Abba Yaro, in a statement refuted Governor Suswam’s allegations that the REC, Prof. Istifanus Dafwang, colluded with the APC to deny him victory in the National Assembly election.

    He said the allegations were the antics of a bad loser looking for a scapegoat.

    Yaro said the call arose from the governor’s inability to dictate to Prof. Dafwang and make him dance to his tunes, adding that instead of removing him, Prof. Jega should praise the REC for his rectitude and for performing well.

    He said the APC, which had the support of the electorate, needed not seek the influence of the commissioner or ask any favour from him.

    Comrade Yaro said it was the PDP, which frittered away the goodwill of the people and therefore had no hope of winning their votes.

    He said APC agents reported to him that the cancelled results, which the governor complained about, were voided, following over voting, falsification and mutilation of declared results as well as ballot box snatching and stuffing by PDP agents.

    The APC chairman said Prof. Dafwang and INEC officials were not responsible for Governor Suswam’s loss, but his inept administration, which brought hardship to the people and the desire of Nigerians to effect change in the leadership of the country.

    He said the APC received reports that the governor was planning to perpetrate atrocities in Saturday’s election and that his call for the replacement of the REC with someone not familiar with the terrain would facilitate his plans if obliged.

  • APC urges REC’s removal

    APC urges REC’s removal

    The Enugu State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, to remove the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Prof. Eze Onukaogu.

    It said it had no confidence in him.

    “In an ideal society, Prof. Onukaogu ought not to be part of any electoral process, because of his terrible antecedents during the Anambra State governorship election in 2013.”

    Speaking at the weekend at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Enugu State Correspondents’ Chapel forum, the state Chairman of APC, Dr. Ben Nwoye, said the party had  reservations about the REC.

  • Mixed reactions trail removal of wages from Exclusive List

    Mixed reactions trail removal of wages from Exclusive List

    Mixed reactions have trailed the decision of lawmakers to expunge wages issues from the exclusive legislative list. While the  Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) are against the move, the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) sees nothing wrong with it, TOBA AGBOOLA writes.

    Attempts by the National Assembly (NASS) to remove wage-related issues from the exclusive legislative list and put them on the concurrent legislative list in the on-going fourth amendment to the 1999 Constitution, have been greeted by mixed reactions.

    The organised labour, under the aegis of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC),  Trade Union Congress (TUC), and the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) have perfected plans to resist what they described as an act of treachery to further drive the Nigerian workers to the extreme and pave the way for all forms of violent reactions.

    While the TUC, last week,  moved to Lagos to perfect its onslaught against the NASS, the leadership of the NLC converged in Abuja to fine tune strategies to thwart the move.

    NLC’s President, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar called on the whole workers in the country to be red-alert  over the attempt by what he called “political hawks” to take food from their mouths. Omar, who insisted that the battle must be won added: “We at  the Congress see the removal of Wages from the Exclusive List as an act of treachery masterminded by conservative governors and their cohorts in the NASS, which will do the polity no good.”

    Omar warned that the consequences that would befall the nation’s economy would be unimaginable because of the decision of the NASS on minimum wages. He said: “We advise the lawmakers to hearken to the voice of reason and the voice of the people by urgently retracing their steps because the consequences of their action could be dire for the nation.”

    Its General Secretary, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, also stated that the treacherous decision was masterminded by conservative governors. “We wish to state in no uncertain terms that the Congress will mobilise its members to resist this move,” he said. Ozo-Eson, who argued that the minimum wage laws are in force in approximately 90 per cent of countries in the world today, emphasised that Congress will not be cowed by the remaining 10 per cent of Nigerians opposed to the laws.

    Its Deputy President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, while paying tribute to the House of Representatives, that did not contemplate removing wages from the Exclusive List, challenged the Senate to be ready for actions from the labour movement. “We recall that last year, our national campaign and mobilisation on this subject matter was suspended at the instance of the leadership of the Senate, which promised to revisit the issue now that they are better informed. “It is also worth recalling that the just concluded National Conference retained wages on the Exclusive List in deference to argument in favour of putting it on the Concurrent List,” Ajaero said.

    In the same vein, the TUC’s President, Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama, stated that the attempts by some elements within the Upper House to truncate the economic stability of the nation, needs swift mass action. He said TUC is worried that the Senate is feigning ignorance of the principle and concept of the minimum wage as practised in decent societies all over the world. Kaigama, who argued that the timing of the Senate’s decision was so close to the preparation for general elections next year, saw it as an attempt to provoke a national industrial crisis. He warned that unless the Senate wisely reverses its decision, Nigerian workers would not hesitate to resort to that option.

    In Kaigama’s words: “We have explained as often as necessary that the basic rationale for the fixing of a minimum wage is to ensure that employees, particularly the unorganised and unskilled, are not exploited by their employers to the extent that their pay becomes so low that it creates a pool of the working poor. The Senate’s position will doubtlessly encourage the state governments to start paying starvation wages to their workers, whereas the current minimum wage of N18,000 cannot even meet the immediate needs of the poor masses. This is sure to heat up the polity and lead to predictably, unsavoury consequences.”

    However, NECA disagrees insisting that there is nothing wrong in the decision of the lawmakers to move the minimum wage issue to the concurrent list. According to its Director General, Mr Segun Oshinowo, the ability to pay by employers, whether as government or as a private sector enterprise, is a key factor in employment relationship and sustenance of industrial harmony.

    He said: “We commend this bold initiative by the NASS, as this is the right thing to do. It is, however, important for it to explain how all this will work out so that the state governments would not walk away with the belief that they would not be bound by the National Minimum Wage as and when the Federal Government legislates on this.”

    He said as the voice of private sector employers, NECA equally have an interest in the issue. He stated there is need for everybody to be consistently reminded that Nigeria is operating a federal constitution, which ordinarily should ascribe significant power and responsibilities to the federating units, including the right and power of the component units to define and determine the minimum wage. He said NECA therefore, does not see anything wrong in the intention of the lawmakers to move minimum wage to the concurrent list.

    Deputy Speaker/Chairman, House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Constitution Amendment, Emeka Ihedioha, last week, tried to clarify the status of the issue in the constitution amendment by insisting that labour has not been removed from the Exclusive Legislative List.

    He said it has become necessary to clarify that the conference report of the Constitution Review Committee recently adopted by the Senate and House of Representatives did not remove labour from the Exclusive Legislative List.

    According to Ihedioha, the Senate had earlier put Labour on the Concurrent List but the House retained it in the Exclusive List. He stressed that during the harmonisation of the reports from the two chambers, the Conference Committee adopted the House version and retained labour on the Exclusive List.

    He added that both the Senate and the House of Representatives have now adopted the Conference Committee Report, which retained labour on the Exclusive Legislative List because “we are at a loss as to where the false and misleading information on this matter emanated from,”.

  • ‘Jonathan, PDP can’t get 240 Reps for Speaker’s removal’

    ‘Jonathan, PDP can’t get 240 Reps for Speaker’s removal’

    The Senator representing the Rivers Southeast Senatorial District, Magnus Abe, has said President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would not be able to get 240 of the 360 members in the House of Representatives to impeach the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal.

    He also declared that with the taking over of Mubi in the Northeastern part by Boko Haram insurgents, Nigeria is clearly at war, with a competent president needed to tackle insecurity.

    Abe, who is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), spoke yesterday at his Bera-Ogoni hometown in Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State, while sensitising members of the executives of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 17 wards, on the collection of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) between November 7 and 9.

    He urged other PDP leaders and teeming supporters of Fili in the area to embrace change.

    Abe, a former Secretary to the Rivers State Government (SSG), said: “As we speak now (yesterday), the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, the Number Four citizen of this country, has joined our party (APC). He left the other party (PDP) for the same reason that we left and other people are leaving.

    “People are coming to APC, because there is no justice there (in PDP) and there is no integrity in what they are doing.

    “There is no honesty. Nobody is abiding by the rules that we all agreed on. When you leave, they begin to chase after you.

    “As Alhaji Tambuwal left PDP, they withdrew his security. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is very clear. You can become a Speaker of the House of Representatives, once you are a member of the House of Representatives.

    “Nobody in Nigeria, no power in Nigeria can get 240 members of the House of Representatives to say that Alhaji Tambuwal is not their Speaker. Nobody can do it”, he said.

  • SSANU warns against removal of minimum wage from exclusive list

    The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has warned  against the removal of the Minimum Wage from the Exclusive Legislative list.

    It gave this warning in response to the just concluded National Conference recommendation that the Minimum Wage should be excluded from the Exclusive Legislative list.

    It also underlined its strong opposition to the scrapping of local governments as the third-tier of government, warning that any attempt to uphold these two recommendations will be met with a nationwide industrial actions.

    SSANU President, Comrade Samson Ugwoke, who addressed a press conference on the decision reached at the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the union at the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), said the Confab should also address other contentious issues in the constitution, including those that have not been adequately taken care of before now.

    Comrade Ugwoke said: “SSANU NEC-in-session commends the Federal Government for convening the National Conference and reiterates its position that the National Conference should address key issues of national unity, equity and justice.

    It should also address and accommodate issues that have been contentious in the constitution, including those that have not been adequately taken care of. ”

    The union advised that the Federal Government should address the recommendations of the conference  thoroughly, adding that  they should be those that will address fundamental issues relevant to the survival of Nigeria as a nation as well as enhance economic growth, peaceful co-existence and national security.

    “SSANU is strongly opposed to the removal of minimum wage from the Exclusive list and the scrapping of local government as the third tier of government. Any attempt to uphold these recommendations will be met with nationwide industrial actions,” Ugwoke said.

  • Reps committee recommends removal of immunity for President, VP, Governors, Deputies

    Reps committee recommends removal of immunity for President, VP, Governors, Deputies

    The President, the Vice President, governors and their deputies should lose the immunity they enjoy, the House of Representatives Constitution Review Committee has recommended.

    Also proposed by the Committee headed by Deputy Speaker Emeka Thedioha, is the scrapping of the Joint States-Local Government Accounts and the elimination of the States Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC).

    The committee recommends that local government councils should maintain their own special accounts to be called Local Government Council Allocation Account into which shall be paid directly allocations made to the local government from the Federation Account.

    The committee said no request for creating of state was valid. It deleted if from its recommendations.

    It agreed to a proposal that independent candidates be allowed to contest elections.

    The Report of the Committee was laid before the House yesterday.

    Ihedioha, who is Chairman of the ad hoc Constitution Review Committee read out the report and its recommendations and laid it before the House at plenary.

    According to him, over 200 memoranda were received which covered a wide spectrum of issues, including -Fiscal federalism, Financial autonomy and independence of State Houses of Assembly and Local Government Councils, Mode of Altering the Constitution, Citizenship and indigeneship question.

    Other aspects, he said, were: Making aspects of the fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy justiciable, Devolution of powers from the federal to the states, independent candidacy in elections, Removal of immunity clause for President, Vice-President and Governors, Creation of States, Establishment of State Police, etc.

    He said from the memoranda, key issues were formulated into a 43 item Template of Issues which the Committee put before Nigerians during the Peoples’ Public Sessions on the Review of the Constitution which was held simultaneously in all the 360 federal constituencies in Nigeria on 10 November 2012.

    “The House of Representatives referred 25 Bills to the Committee for further legislative actions, after they had been read the second time following debate,” he added.

    All the amendment bills are to be collapsed into a single bill under the title: “A bill for an act to further alter the provision of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,1999; and for other matters connected therewith,2013.”

    The report highlights important aspects of alterations carried out by the ad hoc committee

    Ihedioha said the Ad hoc Committee has done its job in line with the mandate given to it by the House and in response to the yearnings of Nigerians and has produced a Report to take the process forward.

    He added: “In this regard, the Ad-hoc Committee recommends: The proposed alterations to the Constitution attached to this Report should be adopted by the House; the process of consideration of the alterations to the Constitution proposed by this Committee needs to be expedited to enable us achieve its passage. The House should expedite the process of alteration of the Constitution requiring collaboration with the Senate and the State Houses of Assembly.”

    Ihedioha got an applause from the members as he laid the report before the House.

    Speaker Aminu Tambuwal praised the members of the committee for the effort they have put into the review. He said the possibility that the report would be considered in the next few days would be examined.

    “We shall consult with the leadership and look at the possibility of considering the report before the recess,” adding that copies will be made available to the members immediately in order for them to study.’’