The Nation Newspaper

Tag: The Nation newspaper

  • ‘Why insurgency may last beyond 2023’

    Kudla Satumari contested the Senatorial seat for the Southern Borno Senatorial District against current Senator representing the area, Senator Ali Ndume, who was declared winner of the seat. An aviation consultant and philanthropist, Satumari, in this interview with Tony Akowe, speaks on the outcome of the election, the security situation in the Northeast. Excerpts

    DOES it bother you that the man you contested against is moving a step further to contest the position of the Senate President?

    It does not bother me at all. If he won the election free and square, I will be one of the people championing his desire to be Senate President considering the fact that he is from my Senatorial District and being the Senate President, he could attract some developmental projects to the state and senatorial district. What people don’t know is that I have worked assiduously for him to become a Senator representing Southern Borno in 2011. I was one of the people that worked so hard for him to emerge as Senator. I even built a primary school in my area and named it after him. It is not that I am fighting him or not happy that he wants to be Senate President, but just like Obasanjo would say, we should not reinforce failure because for the past eight years that he has been in the Senate, I cannot say for certainty that this is what he has done to justify his being there to represent the good people of southern Borno. Apart from getting involved in controversy, if you go to my senatorial district, you will know more of this person who is larger than life when he comes to Abuja. This is somebody that could not go to his senatorial district as a candidate to participate in his own primary. He is there because the governor of Borno State and the powers that be wanted him as a candidate. Otherwise, the people resisted him and did not want to see him. In Gwoza, the Senatorial headquarters where they held their primary, he could not go there because the people did not want to see him. This is somebody who has never gone out one day to campaign. This is not the Ndume that we know. But by the time things started unfolding, the people said they wanted him removed from the seat. That was while there was a consensus among our people, irrespective of religion or other considerations. They came and said, we must vote this person out. In about seven, out of nine local governments, by 4.00pm, the exit poll already suggested that we have won the election and people were screaming, running around and shouting my name that I have already won. Within a short period of time, when votes were being collated at the polling units to the collation centres, figures began to change. In his own local government, a bomb was dropped on Election Day and that was a local government where election held in two places because the people are displaced. Yet, they retuned 113,000 votes, the highest in any of the local government, when Biu, the Senatorial headquarters where people have never moved since the insurgency began brought only 54000 votes. In Abuja alone, we have 14 IDP camps, with 75 percent of the population from Gwoza. About 75000 people are behind the Gwoza hills on the Cameroon side. We have camps in Taraba; we have camps in Keffi here, in Abuja, in Jos and in Kaduna. How did you mobilise these people to come and vote on Election Day. On a day when bombs began to fly, people from hiding in the hills suddenly came down to vote and came up with 113,000 votes, higher than Maiduguri Metropolitan with the highest number of registered voters. How can you justify telling me that you have 95 percent voter turnout in two towns out of 13 wards. Any discerning person knows that elections may have held, there were other things that took place.

    Will you accept out of court settlement?

    Never! There are people that by their fruits, you shall know them. In 2015, I contested election. I was the preferred candidate to win. In my local government, we have a tarred road separating two towns. On side of the road, is Adamawa and on the other side, is Borno State. They told me that there was insecurity on my side of the road and they refused to hold election there and moved it to the IDP camp in Maiduguri. Because of the insecurity, the shortest route you could take then was about 12 hours from my constituency to Maiduguri and yet they took the election there. Meanwhile, on the other side of the road, which is Adamawa, they were holding election and insecurity did not bother them. Fast track that to 2019: A bomb was released on that same day and election still went ahead. Regarding the issue of settling out of court; this is not about me, but about my people. When I say about my people, I don’t want to go emotional, but the level of insecurity in my area is so much that I don’t know what is happening. I don’t know if we still have men of character and integrity to question what is happening. It took a legislator from Jigawa State to go to Maiduguri, observe what was happening and almost cried on the floor of the National Assembly. Yet, we have a people representing us as senators. We have a member of the Defence Committee from Borno State; we have a member of the committee on Army from Borno State, we had Senator Ndume who was the Senate Leader and he could not say a single word about the circle of insurgency that is happening. Nobody is bringing the insurgency to the centre stage. My 80 year old mother, by 3.00am last week, slept in the bush. They come here and told us that they have degraded Boko Haram and the kind of insecurity that we are experiencing everyday has never been under Jonathan. Under Jonathan, it was worse because they can take over a whole local government, sit down and operate from there. But the kind of hit and run that we are having and the seeming lack of concern or tangible effort being made by those in authority and this makes one to wonder whether we are still part of this country? So, I will never accept any form of settlement out of court. Let the court decide and say he has won. If that happens, I will appeal and let the appeal court also say he has won. If that also happens and since I cannot go further than that, I will leave it to God. But there is no amount of threats that will stop me. My life has been threatened several times. There is nothing that has not been done. There is nobody on the surface of this earth, including my mother that I cherish and respect so much, that can come and tell me to step down because of whatever consideration. I will never concede. Even if the lawyers refuse to defend me, I will defend myself.

    Some of your adversaries will say that you are just being a bad loser. What do you have to say to this?

    If you hear my story, you will know that my people are with me and I don’t think that anybody will say that I am a bad loser. I am not a professional politician. I am a professional in politics. I have something that I do that can keep me busy. If you ask me what they get at the National Assembly, I don’t even know. I only know that when I become the Senator of the Federal Republic, I can easily access some privileges and bring some development to my people. God gave us the money to do what we did as well as dedicated and committed people to work with. While people are entitled to their own opinion, I can tell you that majority of my people will tell you that I am not a desperate politician.

    If you eventually take over the seat, what are those things that you want to do for your people?

    One thing I know that I can do is that if I knock on some doors, I can get some grants and development projects to my senatorial district. I have gotten grants for people in the past. I have worked for international donor agencies in different places to seek interventions in some areas and have built hospitals in the area without being a senator. If I use the office of the Senator of the Federal Republic, I know that will open more doors with bigger opportunities.

    You said insecurity has been on the rise. From your point of view, what are we not getting right in the fight against insurgency?

    First, I may not be able to speak authoritatively on security issues because there may be things they know that we don’t know. I speak the way I am speaking because I am from the Northeast and have experienced the bitterness and the pain of losing 13 of my direct relations in one day and another 35 members of my extended family in one day. I am a living witness to the extent that I know that my village is not more secured under Jonathan. I want to tell anybody that cares to know that if Jonathan had remained President up till today, probably, the level of degradation of insecurity would have been the same with what we have now or even more. If in six weeks that Jonathan sought for extension of election, he was able to reclaim and degrade their capacity to the extent that election held in every part of Borno State, including Chibok, then, I want to believe that if he had three years, he would have rolled them and pushe them to the extent we are today that people are saying it’s only Buhari that can do it. When I was in the university, I had two pictures on my wall. One was Thomas Sankara and the other was Buhari. That was how much I idolise and respected him. But right now, I am disappointed with his leadership in this dispensation. I believe that we can do more with the resources being pumped into the northeast; with the kind of international support we have willing to assist us degrade the capacity of these people. If we don’t change the current group of people that are being recycled in Borno State as elected representatives, we may have Boko Haram beyond 2023. We have to change the strategy because if you use the same strategy every day, you will have the same outcome. That is our pain and that is why we are crying and shouting and people are not taking our cry anywhere.

    Some of the Chibok girls are still in captivity. What did we not do right in trying to rescue them?

    Like I said, there are somethings that I may be able to talk about. What I know and what I can see is that the enthusiasms with which they talk about degrading Boko Haram and the insurgency is not the same thing they are putting on ground in terms of touching the lives of the people. There are two things that will make people feel at home. Number one, provide the security and number two, provide them the assurance that they are safe and secured. These two things need to come together for people to feel comfortable.

  • Ambode: The shape of hope to come

    THE best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done… Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), 26th President of the United States of America.

    Gradually, Nigerians are being led into the new world in which they would live under the second coming of President Muhammadu Buhari. Every day since he was reelected, he has unveiled in bits what his encore presidency would look like. He opened a chink shortly after the result of the February 23 ballot was announced. Buhari said he would run an ‘inclusive’ administration where all stakeholders would be accommodated. Days after, he widened the aperture, telling us what was in the offing: only men and women of integrity would make his cabinet.

    Then in the closing week of March, he dropped more hints: he said he would put in all effort to ensure the best for Nigeria and her citizens when his second term begins on May 29, 2019. His words:” I assure you I will do my best during the second term. We will work for Nigeria and her people.”

    When leaders publicly make such solemn declarations, they assume the aura and force of covenants or contracts that must be redeemed or honoured. You can’t break them for the sake of your integrity and good name. Now running such an ‘impeccable’ administration in the interest of the people as Buhari is planning simply implies you populate your government with ‘good’ men and women, as the 26th US President counsels above. They must be tested citizens whose past bears no blemish. Nor do they have a baggage of scandals that slows down governance. Still more: they must be on the same page each step of the way with the leader of government and other strategic functionaries of the system.

    If truly we want Nigeria to move into the ‘next level’ of greatness, the mantra the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) waved before us to win the presidential ballot, then we must go for such men in the next government. All over the country, we can locate them, not requiring a trip to Mars or some other outer planet.

    One personality that easily springs up to meet these qualifications is Akinwunmi Ambode, the Governor of Lagos State, who has been described superlatively as the ‘Governor General of Nigeria’. After a survey of the transcendent achievements of Ambode in all areas of performance in the economic powerhouse of Nigeria, Rauf Aregbesola, himself then a governor in Osun State, turned in the verdict that indeed Ambode is first among equals.

    Receiving Ambode in his office in Osogbo, the state capital, Aregbesola said:” I recognise the Governor of Lagos State who by my own assessment is the Governor General of Nigeria. I say so for a very good reason. It is not a question of age of the occupant of that office or his tenure. It is simply an attestation to the fact that the economy of Lagos (under the guidance of Ambode) is about the summation of the economies of thirty states in Nigeria. One will be deceiving himself not to recognise that fact.” Aregbesola went on to ascribe the feat to what he called the ‘brilliant performance’ of Ambode.

    Observers have said that Aregbesola only alluded to a national feat by Ambode. They assert that Ambode’s era has also earned Nigeria a positive place in contemporary annals, which put Lagos as the fifth largest economy in Africa. This makes it bigger than Cote d’Ivoire and Kenya, two of the continent’s most promising economies. Neighbouring Ghana, reputed to be one of Africa’s poster nations in national growth rates, also falls behind Lagos in the Ambode dispensation.

    At the higher federal plane, the country can do with the wand Ambode deployed to give Lagos this facelift, now that President Buhari is shopping for a fresh and dynamic engine to take the country to the next level.

    He is going to be available for call-up to Buhari’s team from May 29, after an outstanding work in Lagos where he gifted residents with some of the best urban and rural development deliveries ever witnessed in Nigeria. The president will find in Ambode a kindred spirit, whose passion is integrity in hard and ceaseless work to ease the plight of the masses.

    Both are pro-poor. Buhari revealed this streak repeatedly as he gave salary-defaulting states huge amounts as bailouts to save the civil servants from hardship. In Lagos, Ambode revealed this same pro-people inclination by not owing salaries and by doling out billions of naira at a go to meet the pension of senior citizens. The humble backgrounds of the duo have influenced them to show pity to the vulnerable of the society. We need such leaders to identify with the people they govern, if we are not to have a disturbing cleavage between government and the citizens that pushes a nation to the precipice.

    But the abiding attribute Lagosians have noticed in their governor is his knack for legacy monuments for the benefit of the society. I dare say Ambode has about the same adroitness at thinking up first class structures as the legendary Brazilian striker Pele had for scoring goals during his days. The footballer is credited with 1281 goals in 1363 appearances, the highest by any player.

    Now spread across the small water-soaked area called Lagos are great landmarks that some societies only get during a succession of administrations or over generations of leaders. However under four years, Ambode’s government has presented us with great mementos that will still command the attention of the future. Even now, as he prepares to leave the scene, he has taken over the expansion, rehabilitation and complete upgrade of the Murtala Mohammed Airport Road. It’s sordid state used to be the nemesis of motorists and a reproach to the nation, given its status as the window to our country, being the busiest airport not only in Nigeria but the West African sub-region. It’s a federal road; but Ambode can’t tolerate what brings shame to his fatherland, the same way Buhari wouldn’t stand shameful treatment of the masses!

    Not a few believe that the president can’t but look the way of such a man as he seeks a team to join him guide the nation into the next level. Ambode has proved in Lagos that he is for a legacy-pursuing agenda, a mission he pursued stoically and pragmatically to the end, even when unconscionably denied a conventional privilege to automatically seek a second term without a challenge within the party.

     

    – Ogunjinmi, a lawyer wrote in from Surulere, Lagos

  • ‘We won’t allow Osun go back to the precipice’

    Ayo Akinola is the coordinator of New Osun Renaissance, a mobilisation apparatus which worked for the emergence of the new governor, Gboyega Isiaka Oyetola. In this interview with Joseph Jibueze, the publisher, media strategist and aide to immediate past governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, makes a passionate appeal on well-meaning Osun citizens to join hands against a return to a sordid past. Excerpts

    WHAT does your group stand for? We are an advocacy group that does political enlightenment from time to time, depending on the need. We actually started operation in Lagos under a different nomenclature during the reign of former Governor Raji Fashola. If you cast your mind back, Fashola was having it difficult because the opposition wanted to discredit his greening initiative. They claimed he was neglecting key areas of development and taking over land pieces and setbacks which were traditional but unallocated workplaces of mechanics and others. It was a deep battle and Fashola’s rating was waning through these falsehoods, especially among the grassroots. We came in because we knew that enlightenment could not be too much and our systemic approach worked. We have a publishing arm because we reckon that we cannot do these things effectively if we do not have our own medium of reaching out. The media houses on ground sometimes may not share your thoughts and you just have to push these ideas out.

    At the end of the day, we published about three editions of our magazine, Development & Policy under the titles Lagos Wealth Report and The Lagos Environment. This was between 2011 and 2013, when another call of duty took us to Abuja and to the Southeast for another one year. In the case of Osun, during the trying days of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s regime, when the opposition, in 2014/2015 was doing all it could to malign his government, we used the popular media as well as other platforms to reach out to the grassroots and coined a slogan, Truth of the Matter, and we published the maiden edition titled, Osun: Truth of The Matter. This was a slogan we coined to showcase the facts as they were then. Just as the Oto ge slogan worked magic for Kwarans, Osun Truth of The Matter, as well as other government efforts exposed the opposition’s lies and presented the true situation.

    You’ve painted a colourful picture of the legacies of the former government. Why then was it difficult for the party to have a smooth win in the September 2018 election?

    The September 2018 election was won squarely by the APC despite what happened. It may seem otherwise for someone not familiar with the evil politics of a few people in Osun. I say this, bearing in mind that in any social situation, it is the evil minority that always make the loudest noise and create havoc, which are erroneously linked to the majority.

    How do you connect that with what is happening now?

    It is the same set of people described earlier and their associates who still want to hijack government now and get through the window, what they couldn’t get through the main door, which is the election. When the PDP were in power, the state was in a siege but the Aregbesola’s populist cyclone came and warded them off. You don’t expect them not to try to stage a comeback.

    How do you mean?

    The level of rigging and vote-buying by the opposition during the governorship election of September 2018 was legendary and horrifying. Osun people saw a desperate people trying to hijack power at all costs, leaving morality behind. You know that in any struggle, the gentleman player or fighter is sometimes the victim because he or she wants to be fair and play according to the rules while the crude fighter inflicts injury, in order to win at all costs. They bribed, bought votes, created chaos, killed, maimed and this situation snowballed into a rerun because there were truly no elections in those 17 polling units. That is exactly what is playing out today, especially as regards Gov. Gboyega Oyetola.

    Running to the tribunal was what they thought could upturn the will of the people, but many see it as a mere face-saving activity, especially with the personality of the defeated candidate, his certificate saga and his party’s defeat at the Presidential and National Assembly polls in the State.

    What is your advice on this impasse?

    With the controversial majority verdict, which many Nigerians have condemned and the Tribunal Chairman’s minority verdict countering same and variously applauded, we believe that the judiciary is still the last hope of our democracy. We hope that the Appeal Court will do the needful and upturn the strange verdict. We cannot afford a stalemate and chaos at this time.  The mood of the people of Osun to this strange verdict is somber, culminating into popular demonstrations against their strange verdicts in major towns and cities last week.

  • Should outgoing governors be starved of funds?

    Governors-elect from some states like Imo, Oyo and Ogun recently cried out against outgoing governors’ last minutes withdrawals and spending. In this report, Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu, sought the views of some public administrators and others on whether outgoing governors should be starved of funds, when they should stop awarding new contracts or making huge payments, etc., and if attempt to stop them from accessing funds would amount to shutting down of governance?

    ALLEGATIONS of last minutes withdrawals and awards of bogus contracts have sparked off verbal exchanges between some governors-elect and the outgoing governors. The Nation investigation during the week shows that this controversy has further worsened the already strained relationship between the political leaders and parties involved.

    As the outgoing governors accuse the governors-elect of lacking the right to challenge them, concerned observers have raised some issues arising from the controversy. While some wonder if denying outgoing governors of access to state funds months before the expiration of their tenure would not amount to a move to close down governance, others said there is the urgent need to legally stop reckless spending by greedy outgoing governors who, in a bid to gather state resources for their personal retirement may put the in-coming government in unnecessary financial stress.

    Dr. Sani Ajala, an attorney at law with bias in fiscal constitutionalism, who practises in Abuja summarised it when he told The Nation that “A governor-elect has no constitutional, statutory and procedural basis until sworn into office to meddle in the statecraft of his state. Similarly, an outgoing Governor of a state, by resorting to last minute fleecing of the assets of his state and brazen financial recklessness is simply warming himself and associates to safe passage to prison.”

    Explaining the genesis of this ugly situation, Ajala said: “Let’s bear one thing in mind, if the machinery of the civil and bureaucratic service of a state is strong, the wanton disregard for extant financial/budgetary regulations will effectively be checked. But then, experience has proved otherwise due to the pervasive greed and kleptomania in our system.”

    These verbal exchanges first caught public attention mid-March when the Governor-Elect of Imo State, Emeka Ihedioha, openly warned financial institutions against engaging in any last-minute transaction with the outgoing government, an action he described then as “illegal.”

    While addressing journalists in Owerri, the state capital, Ihedioha said “persons or groups involved in such activities will be doing that at their own peril.”

    Ihedioha, a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, said “May I use this opportunity to warn all those who may be tempted to do illegal last-minute transaction with the out-going government, particularly financial institutions which may result in further burdening the state with unsustainable liabilities that they will be doing so at their own peril.”

    Ihedioha’s outburst trailed allegation that the Governor Rochas Okorocha  led Imo State Government withdrew a whopping N17 billion shortly after the March governorship election in which the governor’s candidate, Uche Nwosu of Action Alliance lost to the Peoples Democratic Party’s Emeka Ihedioha.

    The Imo State chapter of PDP had accused Okorocha of withdrawing the alleged N17bn “from four banks in three days and of converting government property to personal use.

    The state PDP Chairman, Mr. Charles Ezekwem, who made the allegation, said in a press conference in Owerri, “that between Tuesday, March 12, 2019 and Thursday, March 14, 2019, Okorocha made withdrawals from Access Bank, Zenith Bank, Unity Bank and Skye Bank (Polaris) amounting to over N17bn.”

    The party also alleged that, “Okorocha and his cronies transferred ownership and re-registered more than 150 government vehicles to individuals.

    “We are also aware of the rampant issuance of Certificates of Occupancy to family members and friends of the Okorocha family”, the party said.

    In his initial reaction to the allegation, Okorocha, through his Chief Press Secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo, said, “There is a government in place and until May 29, 2019, that government should continue to work in the interest of the state and her people and also continue to carry out programmes and policies for the same purpose, until its tenure ends. To begin to harass or give directives to financial institutions in the state is an act of hostility and they should know that.”

    In another reaction Okorocha argued that “with its meagre federal allocation and a paltry Internally Generated Revenue, Imo State did not have the N17bn said to have been illegally withdrawn” by him.

    Imo is not the only state where the governor-elect had to raise such alarm. Recently, the Adamawa State Governor-Elect, Alhaji Ahmadu Fintiri, cautioned out-going Gov. Mohammed Bindow’s administarion against what he described as “last minute employment and award of bogus contracts.”

    Fintiri, in a statement issued by his media aide, Mr. Solomon Kumangar, also urged banks not to give “arbitrary loans” to the out-going government.

    “The governor-elect wants all unnecessary expenditure and last minute employment, not done in the past four years, halted forthwith.

    “Similarly, all last minute awards of bogus contracts without following due process should stop.

    “Adamawa belongs to all and any action to the contrary would not be condoned.

    “Banking institutions are hereby cautioned against giving arbitrary loans or overdrafts at this time as this will be at their own risk.

    “Civil servants who get involved in shoddy transactions, aiding and abetting fraud will have themselves to blame if discovered,” he said.

    Other states where such desperate calls have been made include Ogun and Oyo.

    Soon after his declaration as the winner of the governorship election, the Oyo State Governor Elect, Engineer Seyi Makinde, openly cautioned civil servants in the state against conniving with politicians ‘to rush out contracts at this eleventh hour.’

    Makinde said this in a statement made available to journalists and signed on his behalf by Prince Dotun Oyelade.

    He alleged that as soon as it became certain that he had won the election, “certain, top politicians in government started putting pressures on civil servants to hasten and/or originate contracts and facilitate payments of contracts that are yet to be satisfactorily executed.”

    According to him, “The implication of such illicit deal should be very clear to any government worker who indulges in such collusion.

    Similar controversy is also raging in Ogun State where the All Progressives Congress this Friday warned banks and other financial institutions against granting what it called “last-minute loans, overdrafts and other financial instruments to the outgoing governor of the state, Ibikunle Amosun.”

    The party alleged that Amosun was planning to obtain loans and overdrafts two months to the end of his tenure.

    In a press statement issued in Abeokuta and signed by its Publicity Secretary, Tunde Oladunjoye, the party warned banks and financial institutions not to succumb to alleged threats and pressures from Amosun to obtain loans.

    “It has come to our notice that the outgoing governor has been exerting pressures on banks and financial institutions to grant frivolous loans, overdrafts and other instruments immediately Prince Dapo Abiodun was declared governor-elect.

    “We are equally aware that files and other sensitive government documents are being moved out of government offices on the order of the outgoing governor, His Excellency, Senator Ibikunle Amosun.”

    Bankers’ dilemma

    A top banker with one of the banks named in the Imo State’s case, who pleaded not to be named, told The Nation that the development has put bankers and banks in an unfortunate dilemma. “How can you refuse to do business with a sitting governor and how can you choose to offend a governor-elect, who you know will be in-charge in the next four years. The matter is too complex and unfair to bankers and the banks. I plead that the matter be clearly defined. At what point should we begin to deal with the in-coming government officials,” he asked.

    Call for legal framework

    Dr. Ajala is of the view that there is the need for a legal framework to avoid such financial recklessness. As he puts it, “since the primary function of government is the protection of lives and property and since it abhors vacuum, much as an in-coming governor reserves the right to speak out against perceived systemic stripping of the resources of the state that he’ll soon be the man at the helm of affairs, a meaningful monitoring of financial transactions of his State with the view of constituting a strong committee to review the approval/expenditures of the state 100 days retrospectively is more tactical than needless filibustering with the sitting governor who is yet to exhaust his mandate of four years.

    “To accentuate the mechanism of recovery of expenditures tainted with last minute recklessness, robust legal and justice framework is imperative. And sadly, this twin sectors are at the moment inflicted by debilitating virus both at the centre and the constituting States of the Federation. And yet, no harm in trying by a seriously change minded in-coming governors such as Hon. Emeka Ihedioha of Imo State,” he said.

  • Surulere gas fire: Victims count losses

    Following the recent gas fire explosion in Aguda, Surulere, Lagos, victims have been counting their losses. Many have also been calling on the government for assistance to get back on their feet. More importantly, it has again brought to the fore the need to readdress the surge in indiscriminate location of gas facilities across the country. Omolara Akintoye writes

    Where do I start from, with all my machines gone and nothing to work with? The fact that I bought most of these machines on credit makes this whole fire incident really hard to bear. I’ve been managing to pay back the loan; but now that all the machines are burnt, what do I tell the owners? They are already asking for their money”

    Those were the tearful words of Okoro Nnamdi, whose properties and work tools got consumed in a recent gas fire outbreak in a building on Babs Animashaun Street, Aguda, Surulere.

    The Surulere gas fire will go down as the most recent in what has become a regular occurrence across the country. Many would remember the inferno that claimed lives and property in Nasarawa late last year, when leaking gas from a gas plant at the centre of town got ignited by a spark from a vehicle exhaust pipe. That incident led to the death of over a score of people, including students, left many injured and about a dozen vehicles burnt. Many will also remember the January 2018 explosion at a gas facility in the Magodo area of Lagos that got Lagosians palpitating in fear for hours. That also claimed 10 human lives.

    It is perhaps for this reason that many are thankful for the most recent incident, as it claimed no life. But its effect was by no means negligible.

    Chukwura Ngozi, a caterer in one of the shops affected, expressed gratitude to God that no life was lost, but nevertheless lamented her loss. She enumerated goods she lost in the fire to include a microwave, freezers, a blender, mixers, bags of rice and other food items among others.

    Narrating the incident, Chukwura said, “It all started in the afternoon. I saw a thick smoke at the back of my shop. There was this man who moved into one of the shops within the compound two weeks ago and was selling gas; the fire started from his shop. As soon as I saw the smoke, I quickly asked my salesgirls to come out of the shop; we couldn’t bring out anything because they all got burnt. Thank God no life was lost, but the properties…. Only God knows how I can get them back.”

    Another person who suffered great loss in the gas inferno is Oluwasegun Alawoki, a power bike mechanic. The Nation met him at the site of his shop, now razed. He had come to gather what was left.

    “It was a sad experience,” he recalled, sadly.  “Five Tokunboh cars and four power bikes got burnt. As you can see, nothing is left. We even tried to put out the fire with many fire extinguishers, to no avail. Properties worth over N50 million got burnt in the inferno” he said.

    While Alawoki is calling on well meaning Nigerians for financial assistance, he is also calling on the government to ensure that gas owners don’t stay in residential areas any more, but properly situated gas stations. His words, “We are pleading with the government to allow us to continue using this place; you can see we are now back to square one; I can no longer fend for my family. I even have some debts to pay. Government should ensure that gas sellers don’t sell in residential areas anymore,” he said.

    Although the fire was contained within a couple of hours, the people affected will not forget in a hurry.

    The workshop has since been sealed off by Lagos State government. Speaking with Commander, Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LNSC), CSO Omilani Temitope, who was on ground with other officials to monitor the movement of the people within the compound, said, “We have been here since the day the incident happened. As soon as we were alerted, we quickly alerted the appropriate agencies and they came down immediately. Our job here since then has been to give support security-wise, so that people will not take advantage of the situation to steal other people’s properties. We are only here to provide maximum security for residents. Don’t forget that it is not the whole of the mechanic workshop that got burnt, and we would not want anybody to come and carry what does not belong to them. So, we partner with the committee of the mechanic village to identify themselves before packing anything.”

    According to Omilani, the fire started from the gas shop inside the mini mechanic village and ignited every other shop in the vicinity.

    Speaking on why the place was sealed-off, even from those who resided within the compound, Omilani said, “You know once such a thing happens, government will have to seal-off the place for security reasons. Normally, people are not supposed to live within this compound but there is a man who built a house at the back and it’s unfortunate that they are using the same entrance with the mechanic village, and we have to lock all of them out. But on Saturday, the government decided to open only one entrance for the residents, pending the time the matter will be resolved amicably. Also it was directed that all the shop owners whose properties got burnt should pack the remains of their properties.”

    Asked if the shop owners would have relocating, Omilani said “Only the Lagos State government has the final say.”

    Sunday Nation also spoke with the landlord of the residential house located within the mechanic compound, Taoreed Babatunde Fashola. He said, “That fateful day, I was fast asleep when I heard people shouting. I peeped through the window and saw a thick smoke. I rushed out, only to discover that there was a fire outbreak.”

    According to Fashola, the house was built long before the mechanics came there; “but unfortunately we now share the same compound. We quickly informed the Fire Service when the incident happened. We were all directed to go out of the compound and the place was sealed off. We all slept outside for 3 days. It was a terrible experience.”

    He said the compound was opened on Saturday, three days after.

    Fashola said the man, whose gas shop led to the explosion, moved in only three weeks earlier.

    “I even queried those who gave him the shop but they could not say anything until this incident happened. Thank God no life was lost but for those who lost properties, the government should assist them financially because times are hard,” said Fashola.

    Following the gas explosions in Lagos this week, the issue of safety in the Liquefied Petroleum Gas subsector has again taken centre stage, with industry stakeholders expressing concerns over the existing safety gaps, as the drive to boost cooking gas consumption gains momentum.

    The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers, Mr. Bassey Essien, stressed the need for safety consciousness in the LPG sector. “We have to be safety conscious and put all the safety parameters in place; especially with the nature of the product, we need to be very safety conscious and create the awareness among the customers. We cannot play down on safety,” he said.

  • Barcelona increase La Liga lead to 11 points as Messi set new record

    Lionel Messi set a new La Liga wins mark while Barcelona increased their commanding lead to 11 points with a 2-0 victory over 10-man Atletico Madrid at the Camp Nou on Saturday.

    Diego Costa was given a straight red card in the opening half-hour for something he said to referee Jesus Gil Manzano, putting Diego Simeone’s men a man down in what was a must-win game to keep any realistic title hopes alive.

    Atletico produced a gutsy second-half display, expertly shackling Barca but the Catalans finally found a way past the visitors’ outstanding goalkeeper Jan Oblak with a superb curling shot from Suarez in the 85th minute.

    Moments later Messi sealed victory and quite probably the league title with an irresistibly cool finish into the net and Barca’s fans jubilantly chanted “champions”, crowing at their surely unassailable lead at the top with seven games remaining.

    Atletico realistically needed to win at the Nou Camp for the first time since 2006 to stay in the title race and they played with ambition and intelligence in the opening stages, keeping the ball for long periods and depriving Barca of space.

    But they were rocked by Costa’s moment of madness which killed their early momentum and left them with little choice but to defend for the remaining hour of the game.

    Striker Costa reacted angrily to not being awarded a foul after being tackled by Jordi Alba and gave a long verbal response to the referee, who to his disbelief pulled out a red card.

    Costa had to be shepherded off the pitch by Barca’s Gerard Pique as he struggled to control his temper while his teammates Diego Godin and Jose Gimenez earned bookings for venting their anger over the decision.

    Atletico coped superbly with the setback and numerical disadvantage, controlling the space for the majority of the game.

    Messi still carved his way through the middle of the pitch on two occasions, creating openings for Suarez and himself but both South American forwards were thwarted by the titanic presence of Oblak.

    Atletico naturally had limited opportunities down the other end but were not far from finding a goal when Antoine Griezmann picked out Rodrigo from a free kick but the midfielder headed over the bar when Gimenez was stood behind him, in a better position.

    Diego Simeone’s side could not last the distance, however, and as their legs inevitably tired, Barca’s attacking quality made the difference.

    The win marked the 335th in La Liga for the Argentina international, passing former Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas on the all-time list.

    The defending La Liga champions now have 73 points from 31 matches, while second-placed Atletico remain on 62.

    Lionel Messi set a new La Liga wins mark while Barcelona increased their commanding lead to 11 points with a 2-0 victory over 10-man Atletico Madrid at the Camp Nou on Saturday.

    Diego Costa was given a straight red card in the opening half-hour for something he said to referee Jesus Gil Manzano, putting Diego Simeone’s men a man down in what was a must-win game to keep any realistic title hopes alive.

    Atletico produced a gutsy second-half display, expertly shackling Barca but the Catalans finally found a way past the visitors’ outstanding goalkeeper Jan Oblak with a superb curling shot from Suarez in the 85th minute.

    Moments later Messi sealed victory and quite probably the league title with an irresistibly cool finish into the net and Barca’s fans jubilantly chanted “champions”, crowing at their surely unassailable lead at the top with seven games remaining.

    Atletico realistically needed to win at the Nou Camp for the first time since 2006 to stay in the title race and they played with ambition and intelligence in the opening stages, keeping the ball for long periods and depriving Barca of space.

    But they were rocked by Costa’s moment of madness which killed their early momentum and left them with little choice but to defend for the remaining hour of the game.

    Striker Costa reacted angrily to not being awarded a foul after being tackled by Jordi Alba and gave a long verbal response to the referee, who to his disbelief pulled out a red card.

    Costa had to be shepherded off the pitch by Barca’s Gerard Pique as he struggled to control his temper while his teammates Diego Godin and Jose Gimenez earned bookings for venting their anger over the decision.

    Atletico coped superbly with the setback and numerical disadvantage, controlling the space for the majority of the game.

    Messi still carved his way through the middle of the pitch on two occasions, creating openings for Suarez and himself but both South American forwards were thwarted by the titanic presence of Oblak.

    Atletico naturally had limited opportunities down the other end but were not far from finding a goal when Antoine Griezmann picked out Rodrigo from a free kick but the midfielder headed over the bar when Gimenez was stood behind him, in a better position.

    Diego Simeone’s side could not last the distance, however, and as their legs inevitably tired, Barca’s attacking quality made the difference.

    The win marked the 335th in La Liga for the Argentina international, passing former Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas on the all-time list.

    The defending La Liga champions now have 73 points from 31 matches, while second-placed Atletico remain on 62.

  • Killings: I’m the unhappiest leader in the world

    President Muhammadu Buhari has described himself as the unhappiest leader in the world on the account of killings across the nation, especially the northeast.

    He reassured Nigerians that ending banditry remains a key priority of his administration,

    According to him, he would do whatever it takes to ensure the country’s security system confronts these public enemies with merciless determination.

    Reacting to the recent spike in reported incidents of banditry and kidnappings in some parts of the country, Buhari condoled all those affected by the unfortunate events

    In a statement by the Senior Special Adviser on Media and publicity, Garba Shehu, the President said “How can I be happy and indifferent to the senseless killings of my fellow citizens by bandits?

    “I am human and I understand the pains of the victims and their families who have been traumatized and impoverished by constant ransom demands by bandits,” the President said empathetically.

    Read also: Ending banditry remains key priority of my administration – Buhari

    “The politicisation of tragedy reveals the darkest sides of our primitive politics. Almost every week, I summon my security chiefs to get an update on the strategies being devised to defeat these mass murderers.

    “There is no issue that dominates my mind every 24 hours like security because, as an elected President, protecting the citizens of my country is one of the primary functions of my administration.

    “I constantly listen to our security personnel in order to understand their problems and needs, and I have never hesitated to attend to those needs in terms of motivating and equipping them to respond effectively to our security challenges.

    “It is therefore ridiculous to suggest that I am indifferent to these killings.

    “I have ordered rapid and robust deployment of troops to all the areas currently under attack from bandits and we are determined to tackle this challenge ferociously until these remorseless killers are crushed and utterly defeated,” the President said.

    President Buhari called on communities where banditry is active to support and cooperate with the security agencies, particularly the recently launched Operation Puff Adder to battle bandits and kidnappers.

    The President said it was regrettable that bandits have informants within some communities and utterly reprehensible that certain communities have signed protection deals with bandits at the expense of other communities, thereby creating complications and frustrating government’s intervention

    He appealed to communities to report suspicious movements of the bandits into their areas within the shortest available opportunity, especially considering the fact that intelligence is critical to detecting, frustrating, neutralising and defeating the criminals.

  • Guinness Gold Lager beer launched in Nigeria

    Launching in Nigeria for the first time in the world, Guinness Gold is a refreshing lager, packed full of depth and character, making it ideal for Nigerians who are looking for more from their drinking experience.

    Guinness Gold is a characterful lager beer that will stand out from the crowd thanks to its unique combination of high-quality ingredients sourced locally and internationally. Alongside the standard malt, the addition of two speciality malts – crystal malt and amber malt- create a lager with real depth of flavour.

    Uche Onwudiwe, Marketing Manager, Guinness in an interview, said the Guinness Gold is a lager ber full of flavour and depth that we really believe will appeal to modern discerning tastes.

    Read also: Guinness commissions water facility in Kebbi community

    To help celebrate the launch, Dublin-based innovation brewer, Aisling Ryan, is in Nigeria to join the local team headed up by Colman Hanna to meet consumers and introduce them to this new beer.

    Master brewer, Aisling Ryan says, “The brewers at Guinness are passionate about bringing more flavour to drinkers around the world through our beers, and we’re very excited to be doing that here in Nigeria with our new lager beer, Guinness Gold. Working collaboratively with the pioneering brewing team in Nigeria, we wanted to develop a flavourful beer that people can discover and share every day. Staying true to the ethos of the Guinness founder, Arthur Guinness, who was a man of vision, Guinness Gold a lager beer that combines craft with science to produce a premium lager beer for Nigerians to enjoy in life’s golden moments.”

    Guinness Gold will get an official launch tonight in Lagos in a first-of-its-kind immersive consumer experience designed to demonstrate how the product will improve the lager beer drinking experience for discerning Nigerians who are looking for more from their beer.

  • Senate Presidency: Adeyeye urges APC to discuss with Ndume, Goje, others

    A senator-elect, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, has urged the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to open discussions with Senators Ali Ndume and Danjuma Goje, with the view to assuaging their feelings.

    Ndume and Goje have signified their intention to vie for the position of Senate President in the Ninth Senate, against Senator Ahmed Lawan who has been chosen for the position by the APC.

    Adeyeye, who has been elected to represent Ekiti South senatorial district on the platform of the APC, said the interest of the party should supersede the interest of individual members.

    Speaking with journalists in Abuja, Adeyeye, however, urged the leadership of APC to strike a balance between the interest of the party and the feelings of those who might not be favoured in the selection of process.

    Adeyeye said, “It is a matter of give and take. I think the leadership of the party should do well to assuage the feelings of those who might not have been favoured in the selection process by inviting them and let them see reasons.

    “The interest of the party is more important than individual interests. When we fight for and protect the collective interests, individual privileges and interests can still be met”.

    Senator Ndume (Borno South) and Goje (Gombe Central) who hailed from the Northeast geopolitical zone as Lawan, have indicated interest in the race for Senate President, against the party’s choice of Lawan.

    Adeyeye acknowledged the right of Ndume and Goje to aspire to be Senate President since they are members of the APC and more so when the position had been zoned to their geopolitical zone, adding that, “However, I think we can always find compromise”

    Read also: Niger senators back Lawan’s race for Senate President seat

    He cautioned the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against fielding candidates for the President of the Senate and Deputy President of the Senate, saying doing so would negate the ethics and norms of parliamentary practice and procedure.

    The first time senator, who was the spokesman for the PDP until December 2018, cited the example of the United States where the Republican Party, with only a slim majority over the Democrats, still controls the American parliament.

    He said, “In America as we speak today, the Republicans are in the majority with three or four senators over the Democrats in the Senate and yet nobody in the minority party ever contemplated nominating any of their members to become the leader of majority.

    “Because that will be against the ethics and the norms of parliamentary practice and procedure. After 20 years of democracy, we should start experimentation. By now we should start a proper culture, ethics and norms of the advanced democracy

    “We should be able to do what the public expect should be the outcome of an election. Nigerians have given the APC majority of the seats in the Senate; they, therefore, expect the APC to control the Senate

    “Nobody should, therefore, try to subvert the will of the people by trying to play any game or causing any division even among the majority party such that the will of the people, freely expressed at the polls, could be subverted.

    “I do not expect any member of the PDP to come out and contest for leadership positions meant for the party with the majority seats on the day of inauguration of the Ninth National Assembly.

    “All contestants on that day should be APC members. Since Nigerians deliberately voted for the APC to constitute the majority in the nation’s parliament with about 64 senators, the contest for the leadership positions should be within the APC.

    “The PDP should not interfere in it. The opposition party should not produce any candidate and its members should not contest on that day.

    “That is the practice in the advanced democracies. No minority party plays any game to take over the majority when it did not win the highest number of seats during the general elections.

    “Even if the APC is presenting the three senators to contest for Senate President, I do not expect that the PDP will try to take advantage of the situation by sponsoring one of its members to contest the position.

    “We don’t want such attitude in the Senate anymore. I think by now, we should have rules and develop proper democratic norms and values that would prevent us from doing what is not expected of us as a party and as members of a party”.

    The senator-elect cautioned APC members contesting for the position of Senate President against picking a member of the opposition PDP as candidate for Deputy Senate President just to leverage on bloc votes expected from PDP senators.

    “I do not expect a person contesting the seat of Senate President to make a member of the opposition party, his deputy in order to win the election. That would be a total betrayal. I expect that the party with the majority seats should produce the presiding officers and the principal officers meant for the ruling party.

    “That has been the situation in Nigeria up till 2015 when we had the present aberration. It is high time we put a stop to such an unholy collaboration where we would have a Senate President from the ruling party having a deputy from the minority party.

    “What is currently happening in the Eight Senate, temporarily halted the democratic tradition we were developing but we are trying to resuscitate it”, Adeyeye said.

  • Niger senators back Lawan’s race for Senate President seat

    Serving and elected Senetors in Niger under the platform of the All Progressives  Congress ( APC), on Saturday endorsed Sen. Ahmed Lawan for the ninth senate president seat.

    The endorsement was contained in a statement issued in Minna and signed by three senators,  Mohammed Sani Musa – Niger East, Sabi Abdullahi – Niger North and  Senator-elect, Muhammad Bima-Enagi – Niger-south in Minna.

    According to them, Lawan has an impeccable character and undeniable wealth of experience as a lawmaker to drive the aspirations and vision of the 9th Senate towards achieving its mandate.

    “There is no doubt that  Lawan has also demonstrated stability, reliability and fidelity towards ensuring sound and people-oriented legislation at the Senate as he demonstrated in the build-up to the 2019 general elections where despite the pressure from the opposition, remained resolute and committed towards promoting the good course of the Senate as the apex law-making organ in the country.

    “Sen. Lawan is one Nigerian who has remained detribalised, bi-partisan and accommodating to varying views as long as they are positive to the wellbeing of Nigerians.

    “He has demonstrated this in his support for legislations sponsored by lawmakers who might not have been in the same political parties with him at the floor of the senate.

    “Sen. Lawan will promote homogeneity of purpose at the 9th senate and foster unity amongst distinguished senators as well as other arms of government, in a manner that will add value to good governance in Nigeria.

    “Lawan is a man without any form of primordial sentiment. Even though each of us represents our various constituencies, his interest is in the development of Nigeria and Nigerians as a whole.

    “So, we believe he embodies outstanding qualities that are germane to the success of the 9th senate and the government as a whole. Therefore, we join our colleagues in endorsing his senate presidency ambition.

    ”  Lawan has the qualities and leadership skills to harmonise the 9th assembly and promote effective legislative processes that will enhance the qualities of laws for optimal political growth of the country.

    “We believe therefore that our party, the ruling APC’s decision to endorse Lawan for the presidency of the senate is a wise and timely decision that has great benefits not only for the party but for the next phase of governance as a whole in the country.

    “His display of honesty, sincerity of purpose, respect for divergent views, loyalty to and believe in party supremacy as well as proven experience in the business of lawmaking makes him the obvious choice for the legislature’s top job,” they said.(NAN)