tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71012716481196454842024-03-27T23:53:54.476+00:00 Ai-taleabiamo Tittletattle...in every rumour, there's an outta of truth!
| Droll | Scandals | Glitzy | Hottea | Gist & More Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comBlogger2380125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-29423740058358739062024-02-24T11:41:00.003+00:002024-02-24T11:41:20.769+00:00 Lori Iro Nigeria will not fall because we are the true Giant of Africa - Information Minister, Mohammed Idris, says.<div style="text-align: center;"><img height="293" src="https://alexis.lindaikejisblog.com/photos/shares/ue_1708512096.jpg" style="font-family: verdana;" width="320" /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, says despite the increasing hardship in the country, Nigeria will not fall because it remains the “Giant of Africa.<span><a name='more'></a></span>”The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, gave hope to Nigeria in Minna, Niger State, at a Public relations conference on Tuesday, February 20. Represented by the Director General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), Jibrin Ndace, the Minister said;</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">“His Excellency Ahmed Bola Tinubu, GCFR, President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, is highly committed to leading us to the Nigeria we want with a sincere purpose and focus on the values of the Nigeria Constitution. In the last seven months, this government has ensured it doesn’t lose track in fixing the economy, fighting insecurity, attracting Foreign Direct Investment, and consolidating Nigeria’s Foreign policy ethos on the world stage. Our role in sustaining democracy in the West Africa region through the ECOWAS platform has won us a prestigious mention at the global political family table. We will not rest on these milestones, because the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Tinubu, was and still remain resolute that Nigeria will not fall because we are the true giant of Africa.”</span></div>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-48443190285199696662024-02-24T10:24:00.008+00:002024-02-24T10:24:43.343+00:00 Ban the use of dollars in Nigeria - Ned Nwoko tells Senate<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://alexis.lindaikejisblog.com/photos/shares/edf_1708684890.jpeg" style="font-family: georgia;" /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">As the forex crisis in Nigeria subsists, Senator Ned Nwoko has asked his colleagues to ban the use of dollars in the country. <span><a name='more'></a></span>Speaking during its plenary on Thursday, February 22, Nwoko opined that this action will help strengthen the Naira. ‘’I have lamented about the fundamental problem we have in Nigeria and that is the use of dual currency in Nigeria. There is no other economy that can survive with that. We must understand that we have relegated Naira to the background. Everybody is talking about Dollars, and the dollar is what is causing the problem. It might be a difficult thing to contemplate but what has to be done is that we have to stop the use of dollars in Nigeria. Once we do that, everything begins to take shape." he said</span></div>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-12777996429271109142024-02-12T21:24:00.005+00:002024-02-25T07:08:13.465+00:00Lori Iro Labour considers N1m as the new minimum wage<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero, has stated that organized Labour may be forced to push for a new minimum wage of N1 million for Nigerian civil servants if the ongoing inflation is not effectively addressed and nipped in the bud. <span><a name='more'></a></span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Ajaero said this while appearing on Arise TV. According to him, the demand from organised labour would be influenced by the cost of living which has been increasing since President Bola Tinubu assumed office, notably due to the removal of fuel subsidy and other policies. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">“This N1 million may be relevant if the value of the Nigerian (naira) continues to depreciate; if the inflation continues unchecked because the demand for labour is equally dependent on what is happening in the society. You will remember that by the time we were contemplating N200,000 (as minimum wage), the exchange rate was about N800/N900 (to a dollar). As we talk today, the exchange rate is about N1,400 or even more. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Those are the issues that determine the demand and it is equally affecting the cost of living. And we have always said that our demand will be based on the cost of living index. You will agree with me today that even a bag of rice is going for about N60,000/N70,000 or more.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">A bag of locally produced corn is about N56,000 or more. Foodstuff is getting out of reach, now are we going to get a minimum wage that will not be enough for transportation even for one week?. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">You have to factor in these issues and that will determine the Federal Government’s commitment to this negotiation. It is not just that they want to give us a minimum wage. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The old minimum wage will be expiring by April and ordinarily, the Federal Government ought to have set up a committee six months before that time so that negotiation would have commenced but the Federal Government didn’t do that until (recently when) they inaugurated a committee and the committee has not sat. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">It appears we are going to work within one month or two to agree on a figure and I doubt how those ones are going to''</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Watch a video of him speaking below</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span></div><summary class="description" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px !important; height: auto !important; line-height: 21px;"><div class="my_div" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: auto !important;"><iframe allowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true" class="instagram-media instagram-media-rendered" data-instgrm-payload-id="instagram-media-payload-0" frameborder="0" height="746" id="instagram-embed-0" scrolling="no" src="https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3QBdEnNu2j/embed/?cr=1&v=14&wp=540&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lindaikejisblog.com&rp=%2F2024%2F2%2Flabour-considers-n1m-as-new-minimum-wage-2.html#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A7262%2C%22ls%22%3A3711%2C%22le%22%3A4591%7D" style="border-color: rgb(219, 219, 219); border-radius: 3px; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px 0px 12px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 2px);"></iframe><br /></div></summary>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-122787311608986482024-02-12T21:11:00.008+00:002024-02-12T21:11:48.286+00:00Is Baba Obasanjo doing Yoruba parapoism? He is yet to write Tinubu a letter, and there are compelling reasons to write one now - Dino Melaye asks<div style="text-align: center;"><img height="137" src="https://alexis.lindaikejisblog.com/photos/shares/Is%20Baba%20Obasanjo%20doing%20Yoruba%20parapoism%20He%20is%20yet%20to%20write%20Tinubu%20a%20letter,%20and%20there%20are%20compelling%20reasons%20to%20write%20one%20now%20-%20Dino%20Melaye%20asks_1707680253.png" width="400" /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Former Kogi senator, Dino Melaye has asked if former President Olusegun Obasanjo is doing “Yoruba parapoism” following his silence over recent happenings in the country. <span><a name='more'></a></span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Dino, in a tweet he shared, asked why Obasanjo has yet to write President Bola Tinubu a letter. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> According to him, there are compelling reasons to write one now. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">He tweeted;</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">“Is Baba Obasanjo doing Yoruba parapoism? He has yet to write Tinubu a letter, and there are compelling reasons to write one now. Baba, write ooooo....we are waiting. Senator Dino Melaye .”</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="meta" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #9b9b9b; font-family: arial, serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 5px; overflow: auto;"></div>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-69643978682227647142024-02-05T09:55:00.006+00:002024-02-05T09:55:19.192+00:00Photos: Aerial view shows impact of the explosion that rocked Ibadan last night.<div style="text-align: center;"><img height="190" src="https://cdn.vanguardngr.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Ibadan-explosion-1-1.png" width="320" /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">A drone has captured the aftermath of the explosion that occurred on Tuesday, January 16, in Ibadan, revealing extensive damage to properties. </span></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><a name='more'></a></span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Residents of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital thrown into confusion as an explosion rocked parts of the city, leaving two dead and 77 injured.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span><img height="172" src="https://www.channelstv.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Explosion_1a.jpg" style="font-family: georgia;" width="320" /><img height="172" src="https://www.channelstv.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Explosion_1a.jpg" style="font-family: georgia;" width="320" /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Earlier today, the governor of Oyo state, Seyi Makinde said preliminary investigation revealed that the illegal miners had stored explosive devices in one of the houses which caused the explosion. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">In a statement released after visiting the site and other hospitals where the injured are receiving treatment, the Governor also confirmed that two people have died while 77 were injured and being treated in public and private hospitals.</span></div>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-30780200346065110122024-02-05T09:51:00.005+00:002024-02-05T09:51:51.082+00:00 Taqqiyya The killing of Ekiti monarchs was extremely painful and very unfortunate - Sultan of Sokoto<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Alhaji Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar, has condemned in strongest terms, the murder of two traditional rulers in Ekiti State.<span><a name='more'></a></span> </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Recall that gunmen suspected to be herdsmen killed the Onimojo of Imojo-Ekiti, Oba (Professor) Samuel Olushola, and the Elesun of Esun-Ekiti, Oba David Ogunsakin. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The incident happened between Oke-Ako and Ipao-Ekiti in Ajoni Local Government Area of Ekiti State on Monday, January 29, 2024, while the victims were returning from a security meeting in Ikole LGA. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">In a statement issued by his media team on Friday, February 2, the Sultan, who is also the Chairman of the National Traditional Rulers Council of Nigeria (NTRCN), described the killing of the two monarchs as "extremely painful and very unfortunate </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">He recalled that the late Onimojo was an important monarch in the entourage of Attah of Aiyede, Oba AbdulMumini Adebayo Orishagbemi when he paid him a visit in Sokoto. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">He noted that the monarch was also on the ground to be part of his rousing reception during his return visit to Aiyede Kingdom, Ekiti State. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The Sultan called on the Inspector General of Police and heads of other relevant security agencies in the country to go after the killers and make them face the full wrath of the law. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">"The police should take its anti-crime battle to these criminals now, wherever they are, whoever they are, and ensure that no matter their status and stature in the society, they should not be spared and must be brought to justice, while efforts must be made to henceforth prevent a repeat of such dastardly act before it happens in the future," the Sultan said.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">He extended his condolences to the government of Ekiti State, the Attah of Aiyede Kingdom, the immediate families of the slain Onimojo, Elesun and the entire people of their respective towns while praying that Allah would grant them the fortitude to bear the irreparable losses.</span></div>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-77985931404400938262024-02-04T21:05:00.007+00:002024-02-04T21:05:34.630+00:00 CAC document shows foreign names as owners of mining company indicted for Ibadan explosion - Gov Makinde<div style="text-align: center;"><img height="252" src="https://alexis.lindaikejisblog.com/photos/shares/hfs_1705552939.PNG" style="font-family: georgia;" width="320" /><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Governor Seyi Makinde has revealed that the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) certificate of a mining company indicted for the explosion that rocked the Bodija area of Oyo State on Tuesday, January 16, showed some foreign names as owners.<span><a name='more'></a></span> The governor disclosed this during an interview with Channels TV. He also said the death toll in the unfortunate blast had risen to three as one more victim died in a hospital on Wednesday, January 17.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img height="221" src="https://alexis.lindaikejisblog.com/photos/shares/edrttt_1705552956.PNG" width="320" /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">“We recovered one individual alive today (Wednesday) under the rubble. 60 of the 77 people hospitalized have been discharged. We are trying to uncover the identities of the people. We’ve done a few fact-finding on the company involved and yes, there are indeed some foreign names on the CAC documents of the company involved but these are still early days. We don’t have anything to cover,” he said. Makinde said the state has identified an individual of interest that security agents should be inviting for questioning. “It is not anything that has to do with banditry and insurgency but illegal miners that stored explosives in a residential area,” the governor clarified. He said the state government has no reason to cover up and that the people of the state should trust his administration. The governor added that he would seek presidential approval for miners to store explosives with the military, and would sign an executive order in the coming days to that effect.</span></div><div class="meta" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #9b9b9b; font-family: arial, serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 5px; overflow: auto;"></div>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-91668560429707558502024-02-04T20:42:00.002+00:002024-02-04T20:42:31.473+00:00 eeee oooo oga o Saudi Arabia to change alcohol rules as it opens first alcohol shop<div style="text-align: center;"><img height="168" src="https://alexis.lindaikejisblog.com/photos/shares/images%20-%202024-01-25T211129.998_1706213527.jpeg" style="font-family: georgia;" width="320" /></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Saudi Arabia has revealed new rules on alcohol as it prepares to open the first-ever liquor store in the capital, Riyadh. Alcohol sale and consumption in Saudi Arabia is strictly forbidden and is punishable by lashes, deportations, fines, and imprisonment.<span><a name='more'></a></span> The rules regulating alcohol quotas for non-Muslim diplomatic missions are being introduced to “counter the illicit trade of alcohol goods,” the governmental Center of International Communication (CIC) said in a statement. According to Reuters who released the report, the first alcohol store in the capital Riyadh will serve exclusively non-Muslim diplomats. The CIC responding to the report said that a “new process will focus on allocating specific quantities of alcohol goods when entering the Kingdom to put an end to the previous unregulated process that caused an uncontrolled exchange of such goods in the Kingdom.” The CIC did not clarify if a shop will be opened but said the new “regulatory framework has been introduced to counter the illicit trade of alcohol goods and products received by diplomatic missions,” the CIC said. Despite the ban on alcohol, Saudi Arabia under Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman has moved towards the remodeling of its tourism industry as part of a grand vision to diversify the economy leading to speculation that it could legalize alcohol in the Kingdom very soon.</div></span>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-61338958992019084542024-02-04T12:59:00.004+00:002024-02-04T12:59:21.433+00:00Betta Edu, Sadiya Umar-Farouq: Zenith, Providus, Jaiz banks’ CEOs at EFCC office, submit documents<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Investigations into alleged fraud, financial misappropriation, and diversion of public funds into private accounts, linked to suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, and her predecessor, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, have led to the invitation of some ‘big boys’ in Nigeria’s banking sector by Nigeria’s anti-graft commission. <span><a name='more'></a></span>A presidency source revealed on Tuesday that the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of Zenith, Providus, and Jaiz banks have been arrested by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). “They are now in EFCC custody. Forensic experts and intelligence officers are already interrogating them”, said the source. The anti-graft agency is presently probing numerous instances of substantial public funds directed into private accounts, an action sanctioned by Edu and Farouq using their position as ministers. It is believed that the large-scale movement of funds into private accounts was partly facilitated by a potential deliberate oversight in flagging suspicious transactions a responsibility banks bear under various anti-financial crime laws and Central Bank directives. The source said: “The CEOs, with their aides, arrived at the EFCC office with a lot of files. After their interrogation, they handed over documents relating to accounts operated by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs to help the commission in its investigations. A few minutes later, they were allowed to go. I don’t know if they were told to return this week or next week”.</span></div>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-17204216422500526312024-02-04T11:48:00.003+00:002024-02-04T19:27:30.575+00:006 Major Findings about Tinubu from the CSU Documents-Farooq Kperogi.<div style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibKLnbFdNkPgmyDCG_TQeZnxpp3yl6Wejazsifb2kwOfc5uNLZ5XsmpV-Cj1F3xVtLlYPW-puCMYHJDVlUVWVmWT-z6qZqt6JvC_M5XQOy-tRlaTuhpqppdvDAKlE_JCZfAoboTJEcKLwKjmjCIS7LKTbFm9-lG-6r4LE8zqMalIMAArj4O8cZN0tYfME/w320-h180/Atiku%20and%20Tinubu.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Both pro- and anti-Tinubu news outlets and blogs are selectively reporting the documents that Chicago State University handed over to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar yesterday.<span><a name='more'></a></span> Here are 6 non-partisan tidbits I discovered from poring over them:</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">1. Chicago State University’s Office of the Registrar affirmed that Bola A. Tinubu indeed attended the university “from August 1977 through June 1979” and was “awarded a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with Honors on June 22, 1979.” </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The registrar also swore to this under oath. The penalty for lying under oath in America can be steep. It is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">This information is consistent with my September 2, 2023, column titled, </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">“Tinubu Definitely Graduated from Chicago State University.”</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">2. The certificate (we call it “diploma” in the US) that Tinubu submitted to INEC is inconsistent with the certificates CSU issued in 1979 and subsequently, indicating that Tinubu forged his. (In the US, diplomas are mere ceremonial documents that most employers don’t ask for. Transcripts directly from universities are the usual ways to verify attendance and graduation.) </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Although he did legitimately graduate from Chicago State University in 1979, he obviously lost his certificate and, instead of applying for a replacement, decided to forge it. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">That strikes me as mysterious self-harm. It costs only $26 to get a replacement diploma from CSU. But it takes between eight and 10 weeks to receive it after filling out the Diploma Replacement Order Form. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">My guess is that, in the typical last-minute, fire-brigade approach to things among Nigerian elites, Tinubu didn’t plan ahead and didn't have enough time to apply for his replacement diploma from CSU to meet INEC's deadline and decided to visit Lagos’ infamous “Oluwole” for a counterfeit replacement.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">3. The Southwest College transcript that Tinubu used to get admitted to Chicago State University belongs to a female. I had questioned the authenticity of the transcript because of the many errors in it, such as the date and social security number. We await what CSU has to say about this. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">This reality, though, seems to validate uncorroborated but long-standing whispers from the grapevine that Tinubu, who was allegedly born Lamidi Amoda [Yoruba Muslim domestication of Abdulhamid Ahmed] Sangodele in Osun State’s Iragbiji, stole the identity of a female Bola Adekunle Tinubu to go to America.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">4. Nonetheless, this whisper may be difficult to sustain in light of the fact that Tinubu’s Chicago State University admission letter dated August 23, 1977, was addressed to “Mr. Tinubu,” not Ms. or Miss Tinubu. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Was the “F” in the transcript from Southwest College a clerical error, especially because the social security number and the dates were also clerical errors? Or was there a cover-up somewhere?</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Well, we saw from the documents released to Atiku that after accepting his transfer credits from Southwest College (which later became Daley College), CSU required Tinubu to take qualifying exams in English, math, and reading, which he passed. Why did CSU allow a man who presented a transcript that belonged to a woman to take qualifying exams as a man?</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Tinubu obviously identified as a man throughout the two years he studied at the school. A Nigerian CSU graduate and classmate of Tinubu’s swore under oath that Tinubu ran for and won election as president of CSU's accounting students’ association. His yearbook photo from 1979 also clearly showed a younger version of Tinubu. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">And Tinubu’s handwriting and signature in the June 27, 2022, Consent to Release Student Education Records form, which authorized CSU to release his academic records to one Oluwole Afolabi of 3 Roosevelt Avenue, West Orange, New Jersey, seems to me similar to his handwriting and signatures in his CSU records.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Finally, if he used a woman’s associate degree from Southwest College to gain admission to CSU without having any background in accounting or business administration, his performance at CSU was perplexing. Of the more than 30 courses he took there, he got C’s in only three courses. The rest were A’s and B’s, which earned him honors.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">5. The Bola A. Tinubu who applied to Southwest College for an associate degree in 1975 claimed to have attended Government College, Lagos, and presented a 1970 GCE A-level result with grades E in Chemistry and Biology and an F in Physics. The problem is that Government College, Lagos, was established in 1974. So, there’s a chronological conundrum there, which signposts forgery. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The GCE A-level result also shows that “Bola A. Tinubu” took the exam as an HSC student, which used to be a two-year study after 5 years of secondary school education. In other words, the owner of the certificate must have graduated from secondary school at least in 1968. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">It’s not clear at the moment if the GCE A-level result is fake or authentic—or if it belongs to the man we know today as President Bola A. Tinubu. My hunch is that it doesn’t belong to him. But this will become clear in the coming days.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">6. Tinubu tells the world that he was born on March 29, 1952, but the birthday recorded in his CSU transcript says he was born on March 29, 1954. The space for birthday in the Southwest College transcript he submitted to CSU is blank. So is the record of his secondary school education. These facts added to my previous suspicion that the transcript was probably fake. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">If he was born in 1954, it means he was 14 years old when he graduated from high school.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Bonus: Tinubu’s last name was misspelled in a few of the CSU documents. I thought the “THUBV” misspelling in his final graduation record was bad enough until I saw “Tinububu” in one of the documents.🤣 Bubu, remember, is Buhari’s nickname among a vast swath of Nigerians. Make of that what you will. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">We should all thank VP Atiku Abubakar for his doggedness, which has helped us to get this much clarity about Tinubu’s past.</span></div>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-73292480258644901952024-02-04T11:32:00.005+00:002024-02-04T11:32:59.401+00:00Betta Edu And Tunde Irukera: A Tale Of Two Public Servants -TUNDE OLUSUNLE<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Two notable events hallmarked January 8, 2024, the very first Monday post-yuletide this new year. Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu, suspended Betta Chimaobim Edu, the young medical doctor who hitherto served as Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation. <span><a name='more'></a></span>She was fingered in inexcusable financial infractions which ran counter to public service rules and procedures. In the second instance, the President disengaged from office Babatunde Ayokunle Irukera, the urbane attorney and executive vice chairman of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, (FCCPC). Alexander Okoh, director-general of the Bureau for Public Enterprises, (BPE), was also relieved of his appointment, same day. In different ways and to differing extents, I know Edu and Irukera, respectively.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I first met Edu late 2018 in Port Harcourt, immediately after the Peoples’ Democratic Party, (PDP), national convention which produced Nigeria’s charismatic former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, as presidential flagbearer. The little-known Edu found her way to Intels Camp, an idyllic, oasis in the bedlam of the capital of the oil-bearing state, where Atiku’s delegates and political strategists were quartered. An amiable extrovert, she spontaneously cultivated friendships with some of us on that occasion. She desired a role in the presidential campaign, so she clung to us literally, for inclusion as politicking gathered steam ahead of the 2019 elections.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I visited Calabar not too long after. I was detailed on a specific assignment to Cross River State by the headquarters of the PDP. Edu was Special Adviser on Community and Primary Healthcare to Benedict Ayade, the professor governor of the state. She graciously assigned a car to me to move me around in the course of my visit. I had always longed to visit Tinapa resort, the baby of Donald Duke, the first democratically elected governor of Cross River State, this fourth republic, conceived to recalibrate trade and economic activity in the nation’s South South. That 2018 visit provided a perfect opportunity and inspired a very despondent poem which features in my most recent volume of poetry, A Medley Of Echoes. Edu was quite helpful.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Edu and I were in touch from time to time thereafter. She excitedly shared video clips of her screening by the senate for confirmation as minister last year. I acknowledged them and wished her every luck. In our previous engagements, she had always expressed preference for a health portfolio, ostensibly because of her professional background. That was the last time I heard from Edu! One will need to interrogate the nexus between people’s previous personas, vis-a-vis the spontaneity of office-induced metamorphosis and heightened hubris. I’ve observed a trend over the years such that further scrutiny has become imperative. Like I always tell those who ask me why I don’t jump upon presumably well-entrenched friends when they are in high public office, the point is that I have a “bad habit.” I won’t be found lounging on the corridors or waiting rooms of any friend in public office at whatever level, if we cannot have a telephone conversation and firm up an appointment.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">An eminent and adulated public officer like George Akume, former governor, senator, minister and now Secretary to the Government of the Federation, (SGF), returns people’s calls. How about Enyinnaya Abaribe, former deputy governor, high ranking senator and institutional memory of Nigeria’s parliament. Nobody therefore should consider himself too big or important to get back to people, and reach out. The immediate predecessor to John Owan Enoh, the sports minister, used to be my friend, or so I thought. He dragged me to sit with him on the high table at a post-inauguration reception hosted in his honour at the Transcorp Hilton, same day in 2019. His transformation thereafter was such that I never asked for the direction to his office all through his four years as minister! A Yoruba proverb pointedly enjoins us to be intentionally self-respecting so we can be reciprocally adulated.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Irukera and I knew each other by reputation for decades before we finally met. We lived with our parents and siblings in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, over time, but never met. He was indeed at the Federal Government College, (FGC), at the same time with one of my siblings at some point, while I was at the University of Ilorin. On one of his visits to Abuja well before his appointment to the headship of the erstwhile Consumer Protection Council, (CPC), he insisted on meeting “this elder brother with whom he shares so many attributes.” We were both born in Kaduna at different times and bear the same name, “Babatunde”, which in Yoruba lore presupposes that we are reincarnations of one of grandfathers, paternal or maternal. We are both Yagba from Okunland in Kogi State, and proud alumni of the University of Ilorin. We would further discover that we both got married same day, same month, same year! And so he visited first time and again, ever volunteering to be the one who visits more in deference to his older brother. This was until I insisted on knowing his place, so as to mitigate the “scores” if we were playing a game of football.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Betta Edu is on a yellow card for now relative to the ongoing inquest into her role in a bouquet of financial malfeasance, less than five months in office. While there is a broadsheet of untoward heist reportedly perpetrated under her watch, the fact of her approval to the effect that about N600 million be paid into the personal account is on the front burner. The internet has been throwing up records of Edu’s activities during her stint in office. Her “testimony to answered prayers” at the December 2023 of the mammoth Shiloh prayer convention of Bishop David Oyedepo’s Living Faith Church is trending. Edu’s exhibitionist rocking and revelry alongside her “big girl” associates are also in the clouds. The irrepressible, dart-throwing Shehu Sani, former legislator and public engager, has indeed applauded Tinubu’s decisiveness in promptly taking out Edu. He doesn’t miss the chance to take a swipe at the president’s predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, who could only “ashuwa” Nigerians in every instance, never, ever able to act resolutely. Last December, Leadership newspapers, one of Nigeria’s respected tabloids, named Irukera’s FCCPC “Government Agency of the Year.” The organisation was so recognised for “promoting fairness, regulatory stability and consumer protection within the marketplace.” Irukera was applauded for pursuing “a transformative journey in reshaping and rebranding the CPC, into a proactive and consumer-centric FCCPC.” Leadership posited further: “Irukera’s oversight of the commission’s transformation and operationalisation beginning from January 30, 2019,” has been a game-changer. He was credited with his “unwavering dedication to fostering a dynamic and responsive regulatory environment and recorded numerous milestones across diverse sectors, including healthcare, digital finance and electricity.” The tabloid noted that “one standout accomplishment is the strategic development and implementation of the ‘Patient’s Bill of Rights,’” among a host of other plaudits.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Irukera hosted a media engagement on the eve of Christmas where he disclosed that the FCCPC had weaned itself off from government funding and was now self-sustaining. According to him, rather than draw from the federal till, the FCCPC indeed remitted N22 Billion to the federation account! Irukera volunteered at that encounter that 90 per cent of the Internally Generated Revenue, (IGR) of FCCPC came by way of enforcement of payment of penalties by defaulting companies. In a milieu where many government funded establishments overdraw their allocations, expend their IGR and go cap-in-hand for supplementation, the FCCPC generated N56 Billion last year out of which N22 Billion was remitted to the federal treasury. Such has been the quantum transmogrification of the FCCPC under Irukera, who inherited an IGR of N154 million in his first year in office in 2017.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">There are insinuations to the effect that Irukera has been so treated because of his relationship with former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, a professor of law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, (SAN), who was instrumental to his appointment in 2017. Osinbajo and Irukera were partners in a Lagos-based law firm. Osinbajo contested in the presidential primary of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), in June 2022, which was won by Tinubu. Even before both men met at the ballot at the Eagle Square, Abuja, Tinubu never disguised his disaffection towards Osinbajo, his own protege, who dared run against him. Osinbajo served as Attorney General of Lagos State under Tinubu when the latter was governor from 1999 to 2007. Tinubu also threw Osinbajo up as running mate to Buhari after the APC presidential primary in December 2014.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Irukera is grateful for the opportunity to have served Nigeria’s “incredibly vibrant and loyal consumers.” He is glad to leave behind “a strong institutional advocate in the FCCPC and an outstanding team of soldiers who work there daily for the cause of fair markets.” Irukera offered transparent leadership at the FCCPC, took bold and daring steps, made far-reaching decisions and achieved much in the Commission’s mandate to protect the consuming public from unfair practices. He fearlessly brought to their knees, otherwise powerful local and international companies infringing on consumer rights and made them accountable. Such is the sterling legacy Irukera is leaving in FCCPC, a hitherto little-known government concern.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The period of Betta Edu’s suspension should serve as one to holistically rethink the whole concept of the Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation ministry, the National Social Investment Programme Agency, (NSIPA), and their affiliates. Since their emergence under the Buhari administration, they have been fraught with allegations of mindless thievery and mammoth fraud. From Sadiya Umar-Farouk, who pioneered the ministry under Buhari through Halima Shehu, the NSIPA chief executive, who was recently dismissed by Tinubu and now Betta Edu, the rancid smell of fiscal cannibalism, chokes. Nigeria’s commonwealth to the tune of N88 Billion is alleged to have been fleeced by these three.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Truth is that all the so-called poverty alleviation and empowerment archetypes have only provided for the colossal bleeding of the national wallet. The “tradermoni,” “public works programme” and “conditional cash transfer”, among others, have been most dishonest in serving the interest of vulnerable groups. Who authenticates the number of individuals or households provided with tokens for poverty mitigation? The entire poverty tempering superstructure, under its various aliases and nomenclatures, amounts to a consolidated scam.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">For his inimitable altruism and diligence in service to nation, for opening the eyes of government to the fact that state institutions can be transparently and profitably run, Irukera deserves proper recognition. People who apply themselves to service the way Irukera has should be invited for a handshake and photo opportunity with the President. On such an occasion, Tinubu should ask him to name a particular government department he hopes to help his “renewed hope” agenda. The National Productivity Centre, (NPC), and the Ministry of Special Duties should immediately list Irukera for applicable honours, as different from the Buhari “all comers” epoch. </span></div>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-8505894320119712552024-02-04T11:12:00.004+00:002024-02-04T11:12:43.527+00:00EFCC summons 20 directors, officials of Humanitarian Ministry for probe<div style="text-align: center;"><img height="174" src="https://ocdn.eu/pulscms-transforms/1/SiAktkqTURBXy9kMmYwYTg3MzdmYWI0OWJmN2NkZGVlYjlhYmQ3YmQ0ZC5qcGVnkpUDAAnNAwzNAbaTBc0DFs0Brg" style="font-family: georgia;" width="320" /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Former minister Sadiya Umar-Farouq, Betta Edu, and Halima Shehu have been named and implicated in the case [PN]. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has issued summons to 20 senior directors and officials of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation for a thorough investigation.<span><a name='more'></a></span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The move comes following a list of recommendations presented by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to the EFCC earlier this week. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">According to emerging reports the ongoing probe is an expansion of the investigation into the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, aiming to uncover financial improprieties dating back to the ministry's inception in 2019.According to a credible source, the EFCC is interrogating director-generals and civil servants, with approximately 20 individuals already questioned, and more expected to undergo scrutiny. Former minister Sadiya Umar-Farouq, Betta Edu, and Halima Shehu have been named and implicated in the case.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Background</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The collaboration between the EFCC and the ICPC is anticipated to shed light on additional financial misconduct and irregularities perpetrated by civil servants during the tenure of the Buhari administration. Notably, the ICPC had previously intercepted and recovered a staggering ₦50 billion from the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs between July and August 2023.The funds, earmarked for embezzlement, were intercepted by the ICPC and subsequently deposited into the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The attempt to transfer the funds into private bank accounts was thwarted by the ICPC under its former Chairman, Bolaji Owasanoye, preventing a substantial loss. Furthermore, the ICPC's report outlines the roles played by several officials in the attempted diversion of the ₦50 billion, specifically from the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA). This report is expected to be instrumental in the EFCC's ongoing investigation into suspended humanitarian affairs minister Betta Edu, ex-minister Sadiya Umar-Farouq, and Ms. Halima Shehu, the suspended National Coordinator and CEO of NSIPA.Edu is under investigation for allegedly authorizing the transfer of ₦585 million into the private account of a ministry accountant, Bridget Oniyelu. Sadiya Umar-Farouq faces allegations of ₦37 billion money laundering, while Halima Shehu is being probed for purportedly moving ₦44 billion NSIP funds into private and corporate accounts without presidential approval.</span></div>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-53013372278933578212024-02-04T10:40:00.002+00:002024-02-04T10:40:29.281+00:00 Children Of Politically Exposed Nigerians Will Rather Quit Central Bank Than Leave Their ‘Spoilt Abuja Life’ For Lagos; Get Rid Of Them, Sanusi Tells CBN Gov<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The former Kano Emir stated this while defending the relocation of some departments of the apex bank from Abuja to Lagos by the current government of Bola Tinubu. <span><a name='more'></a></span>A former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has said that that many employees of the apex bank are children of politically exposed Nigerians who would rather resign than relocate from Abuja to Lagos. The former Kano Emir stated this while defending the relocation of some departments of the apex bank from Abuja to Lagos by the current government of Bola Tinubu. He advised the apex bank's present management not to allow any pressure to cause them to reconsider their planned relocation and to be prepared to lay off any personnel who refused to move with them. Sanusi’s statement reads: “The problem we have now is that many employees are children of politically exposed persons and their Abuja life and businesses are more important than the CBN work. “The CBN is just an address for them and if they have to choose between their spoilt Abuja life and the job, they would gladly leave the CBN. “All the more reason for the Governor to put his foot down and get rid of those elements; they are dangerous for the bank’s future.”SaharaReporters earlier reported how the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) kicked against the relocation, describing it as a deliberate plot against the Northern region. According to the forum, the CBN’s decision, rather than being a normal administrative action to fix some logistics problem, is a disturbing pattern of antagonistic actions often taken by certain federal government agencies against the interests of the North and other parts of the country. The ACF noted that Northerners would be affected by the exercise. However, Sanusi, who was 14th Emir of Kano said the relocation was an “eminently sensible move”.</span></div>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-22491189361486462162024-02-04T10:30:00.005+00:002024-02-04T10:31:25.658+00:00Tinubu Under Pressure as COS, Gbajabiamila is Indicted in Corruption Probe of Ex-CBG Emefiele, AMCON Boss Kuru<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://saharareporters.com/sites/default/files/styles/focal_point_325x195/public/2024-01/FC8AE686-31B6-489E-BC81-810B02883E12.jpeg?h=be660991&itok=A5MZFj3w" style="font-family: georgia;" /></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Sources told SaharaReporters on Monday that Gbajabiamila was fingered as one of the beneficiaries of the largesse of corruption uncovered under Ahmed Kuru, the Chief Executive Officer of the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) and the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele. <span><a name='more'></a></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">President Bola Tinubu is currently under pressure over his Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila’s alleged involvement in corruption. Sources told SaharaReporters on Monday that Gbajabiamila was fingered as one of the beneficiaries of the largesse of corruption uncovered under Ahmed Kuru, the Chief Executive Officer of the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) and the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The Special Investigator, Jim Obazee’s report, exposed how Gbajabiamila benefitted from Ahmed Kuru’s “largesse of Ikoyi properties from his days as Speaker of the House of Representatives,” according to top sources in the presidency. One of the sources told SaharaReporters that Gbajabiamila in return had ensured Kuru remained as AMCON’s Chief Executive after about nine years.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Already, fresh information has emerged about how Godwin Emefiele and Ahmed Kuru, the AMCON CEO conspired in gross abuse of office to acquire banks of choice using public funds to fraudulently take over Polaris, Keystone and Unions Banks. SaharaReporters obtained the Special Investigator’s report on the probe of Emefiele which uncovered the alarming sums of public funds which went into the fraudulent acquisition of the banks under Emefiele and AMCON under Kuru's leadership. SaharaReporters on January 10 reported that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) dissolved the board and management of Titan Trust Bank, Union Bank, Polaris Bank, and Keystone Bank. This followed a report submitted to President Bola Tinubu by the Special Investigator on the Central Bank of Nigeria and Related Entities, Jim Obazee.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">It was reported that the decision to dissolve the boards was taken after a meeting between the CBN Governor, Yemi Cardoso, Obazee and the boards of the four banks including Titan Trust Bank’s investors who had earlier avoided meeting with the Special Investigator. SaharaReporters reported in December 2023 that the office of the Special Investigator had insisted that the Chairman of Titan Trust Bank (TTB), Mr Tunde Lemo, Mr Cornelius Vink, and Rahul Savara must appear before it over the acquisition of the Union Bank of Nigeria. Meanwhile, on Monday, SaharaReporters learned that Obazee’s investigation uncovered a scheme by Emefiele (CBN) and Ahmed Kuru (AMCON) that placed N20 billion investment in Heritage Bank sometime in 2017 upon which the bank granted a loan of N25 billion to the Sigma Golf Consortium of Emefiele, Kuru, Abu Funtua, Asega Alega with Umaru Modibbo (as front) to acquire Keystone Bank. Investigations by the special investigator exposed how the N25 billion government fund was roundtripped from Heritage Bank to Access Bank and ended in GTBank, where it was purportedly transferred to AMCON/CBN as payment for the acquisition of Keystone Bank by the Riverbank Sigma Golf Consortium.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">It was learned that in an unusual and unpredictable turn of events, the Presidential and CBN directive to sack the Boards of Union, Keystone, and Polaris Banks, took the Riverbank Signa Golf Consortium by surprise. Independent financial investigations revealed that Ahmed Kuru threw all others under the bus to save his neck by blackmailing all government officials who had benefitted from his generosity through the sharing of Ikoyi and Abuja properties. A forensic observer noted that the special investigator's report that did not indict Kuru raised concerns over whether it was deliberate as a result of a bargain. “President Bola Tinubu is under pressure from some political associates, whom Kuru has soiled their white robes including the Hon Femi Gbajabiamila (President’s Chief of Staff), who has benefitted from Ahmed Kuru’s largesse of Ikoyi properties from his days as Speaker of the House of Representatives,” a source in the Aso Rock said.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The source noted that “Gbaja had persistently blocked Ahmed Kuru’s removal as AMCON’s Chief Executive after about 9 years in office, over two terms of a democratically elected President.” An independent investigator sharing an opinion indicated that “It is clear that the only organ of government that has resources for criminal and forensic investigation of economic and financial crimes is the EFCC. The Jim Obazee Special Investigating team has only managed to point to areas of infractions but has not succeeded in forensic tracing and following of the money. It can only be strategic that the government hand all the cases over to the EFCC, remove Ahmed Kuru from office and switch around a few Directors in the Central Bank who without doubt may be complicit with Godwin Emefiele in this criminal conduct.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">“Otherwise, with those actors in positions, they will continue to obstruct the investigation. You can see the limitations of the Presidential Special Investigators in the CBN establishment. Otherwise, Yemi Cardoso (incumbent CBN Governor) will remain in an invisible walled hostage environment of Emefiele's network in the CBN, as Gbaja has surrounded the President with whispers of half-truths.” Efforts to reach Gbajabiamila and Kuru failed as they did not answer their calls or reply to the text messages sent to their mobile lines</span>.</div></div>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-52389092973239932782024-02-04T10:11:00.002+00:002024-02-04T10:11:22.309+00:00Sabiu Yusuf's Fat Bank Accounts That Shocked CBN Governor - Farooq A. Kperogi<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://saharareporters.com/sites/default/files/styles/focal_point_325x195/public/1%20%281%29_1.jpg?h=10d202d3&itok=Z_-E-TeZ" style="font-family: georgia;" /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Sabiu reportedly said the billions in his accounts are "gifts" from people. But why didn't he get such "gifts" when he was a recharge card seller? Accepting "gifts" for favors done while occupying a privileged government position (he's Buhari's Private Secretary and de facto Chief of Staff) is against the law. <span><a name='more'></a></span>Someone told me CBN governor Godwin Emefiele was so alarmed by the hundreds of billions of naira that Sabiu "Tunde" Yusuf has in his name in personal bank accounts that he advised Sabiu to mask some of the bank accounts and to divvy up the amounts in them to save his neck in a post-Buhari dispensation. Sabiu reportedly said the billions in his accounts are "gifts" from people. But why didn't he get such "gifts" when he was a recharge card seller? Accepting "gifts" for favors done while occupying a privileged government position (he's Buhari's Private Secretary and de facto Chief of Staff) is against the law. Aisha Buhari, who is herself neck-deep in unimaginable corruption, has commissioned people to take photos of Sabiu's multi-billion naira properties all over Nigeria. You may soon start seeing them on social media. The stench bomb of fetid corruption that will explode after Buhari leaves office would be so unprecedentedly malodorous it would deaden Nigeria's collective nasal sensibility for a long time.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Buhari is Aware of Sabiu's Fat Bank Accounts</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">After I published the above update on how CBN governor Emefiele was so alarmed by the unusually large sums Sabiu "Tunde" Yusuf has salted away in his name in many bank accounts, an insider sent the following to me:</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">"Re: Your post about Sabiu & Emefiele. Buhari himself was alarmed & when he confronted Sabiu about the source of the money, he made the same 'gift' claim. Buhari ordered the money be returned to the treasury but Mamman Daura reportedly intervened (although I haven't been able to confirm the authenticity of that part). Buhari, as usual, could only grumble." Buhari does his own stealing by proxy, which makes it impossible for anyone to trace anything to him. That was the evidence that came out from the probe of PTF. He was probably only aghast that Sabiu was too stupid to have that much money squirreled away in bank accounts in his name, not that he had stolen that much money. Sabiu's friends tell me he has up to one TRILLION naira in CASH in various bank accounts in his own name, properties worth billions in many parts of Nigeria, and up to N7 billion worth of shares in AA Rano Oil.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Apart from his own primitive acquisitiveness, he is also probably fronting for someone. I suspect that he is fronting for Mamman Daura since Mamman Daura allegedly overruled Buhari's instruction for Sabiu to return the money he has in his bank accounts to the national treasury. Remember that Sabiu's mother, the late Hajia Halima (more popularly known as "Hajja Madam" in Daura) is Mamman Daura's full-blood sister. Hajia Halima and Mamman Daura are Buhari’s nieces and nephews respectively. When the curtain closes on the Buhari regime, I can guarantee you that it will go into the records as the most corrupt regime in Nigeria's entire history. This is no hyperbole. There is no greater enabler of corruption than the knowledge that there is no consequence for it. There is zero fear of consequences for stealing in Buhari's regime. That is why everyone who can, is stealing to his or her heart's content. What passes for governance in this regime is a raucous stealing bazaar</span></div>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-46701154863625573902024-02-04T10:00:00.002+00:002024-02-04T10:01:04.979+00:00Foul Stench of Buhari’s Corruption and Betta Edu - Farooq A. Kperogi<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">In a June 23, 2020, article titled "Sabiu Yusuf's Fat Bank Accounts that Shocked CBN Governor” where I revealed that Muhammadu Buhari’s relative Sabiu “Tunde” Yusuf had salted away so much money in banks that even former CBN governor Godwin Emefiele was so alarmed that he advised him to divvy up the money into different accounts, I said, “The stench bomb of fetid corruption that will explode after Buhari leaves office would be so unprecedentedly malodorous it would deaden Nigeria's collective nasal sensibility for a long time.<span><a name='more'></a></span>”</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">At the time, some people thought I was merely being hyperbolic for literary effect. But isn’t that what is happening now? Every day, we are regaled with stories of mindless, freewheeling theft of our public wealth by officials and relatives of Muhammadu Buhari. And what we’ve learned so far is just the tip of the iceberg.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">All that happened during Muhammadu Buhari’s eight-year reign was unrestrained, stratospheric, eyewatering corruption the scale of which Nigeria had never experienced. It was a raucous, brazen, cheerfully irresponsible kleptocratic bazaar. While it happened, governance took the backseat, leading me to characterize Buhari’s reign as the era of “ungovernance.”</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The Central Bank of Nigeria under Emefiele and the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development under Sadiya Umar Farouq are competing for frontrunner status as outposts of the most decadent kleptocratic predation. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Emefiele, whom I described in a May 14, 2022, column as an “infernally incompetent, exceptionally corrupt, mind-blowingly self-serving, incomprehensibly clueless, overweeningly ambitious, and cruelly insensitive” clown, became the conduit for unmentionable financial crimes against Nigeria involving Buhari’s relatives, close friends, and associates. While feathering his own nest, he was a dutiful poodle of the consciencelessly thieving, ill-famed Aso Rock cabal, which humored him by telling him he would succeed Buhari in 2023.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">“If someone wrote a tragicomic drama script about Godwin Emefiele’s scandal-ridden reign as a central bank governor and his ludicrously insane attempts to run for president using the financial and symbolic resources of the central bank while still a central bank governor who hurls consequence-free insults and wishes death upon critics for calling attention to the manifest conflict of interest that his presidential run represents, literary critics would pillory the script for its implausible plot,” I wrote about Emefiele in my May 14, 2022 column titled “Emefiele: A Corrupt, Inept, Heart-Attack-Loving Presidential Wannabe.” </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Sadiya Umar Farouq’s Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development has also turned out to be one of the most putrid morasses of venality and fraud during the Buhari years. Sadiya is now predictably dodging the EFCC using the favorite tactic of Nigerian elites entwined in the web of accounting for their corruption: the pretense of ill health.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">When I read that the EFCC was inviting her to account for more than N37 billion that she allegedly laundered, I was shocked by the “smallness” of the amount in light of what I know about the magnitude of pillaging she perpetrated at the ministry. I was relieved when I read a January 4th EFCC statement saying, “We are still tracing all the transactions, hence we cannot put a figure to everything now as the investigation is still ongoing.”</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">We are talking here of a woman who spent more than N500 million to feed non-existent schoolkids in their homes in Lagos, Ogun, and the FCT while schools were closed in 2020, a woman whom a 2017 Daily Nigerian report said stole dinos worth millions of naira donated to IDPs by Saudi Arabia during Ramadan (which she hasn’t denied) while she was Federal Commissioner in charge of the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">In a June 15, 2023, appearance on the Brekete Family radio show in Abuja, Muhammed Kazaure Gudaji, a member of the House of Representatives representing the Kazaure, Roni, Gwiwa, Yankwashi Constituency of Jigawa State who is famous for his brutal forthrightness, verbal directness, and less than perfect English articulation, said what most of us know. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">A rock-ribbed Muhammadu Buhari partisan, Gudaji nonetheless pointed out that enormous theft of public resources took place during the Buhari regime, and that if the government of Bola Ahmed Tinubu wanted to be taken seriously, it must arrest and investigate 12 high-profile personages of the Buhari regime.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">He gave their names as former Godwin Emefiele; former EFCC chairman Abdulrasheed Bawa (and Magu, too); Group Managing Director of NNPC Mele Kolo Kyari; Former Justice Minister and Attorney General of the Federation Abubakar Malami; former FIRS chairman Muhammad Mamman Nami; Sabiu “Tunde” Yusuf; DG of NIMSA Bashir Jamoh; Mohammed Bello-Koko of the Nigerian Ports Authority; Hadiza Bala Usman also formerly of NPA; all CBN deputy governors who served with Emefiele; and the “entire leaders of the National Inter-Bank Settlement System.”</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I have no knowledge of the corrupt dealings of everyone on Gudaji’s list or whether, in fact, he has a basis to accuse them of colossal corruption—but I have learned not to dismiss the man with a wave of the hand because of his rhetorical unsophistication. And the fact that Emefiele, Bawa, Sadiya, and some CBN deputy governors are under probe months after his plea to Tinubu should tell us that he isn’t a flippant blabbermouth. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Of course, Buhari is aware of the massive corruption that took place in his government. I know for a fact, for example, that he was aware of Sabiu “Tunde” Yusuf’s ill-gotten wealth. I have also been reliably informed that he helped cover the corruption of family members who were caught abroad with unusually large amounts of cash. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Two weeks ago, for instance, someone close to the Buhari family shared with me a disturbing story of the last-minute monkey business that the Buhari family perpetrated with Buhari’s own active connivance.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">He wrote: “The son of a very prominent Nigerian (he held no official role, but was the most powerful Nigerian after PMB) in the previous government was arrested and detained for 2 days in England for bringing into the country cash worth millions of dollars/pounds. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">“The Nigerian government, with direct intervention of the former president Buhari, intervened and used the Nigerian embassy in London to rescue the son who is in his 30s and related to PMB. This happened when PMB was in Saudi Arabia for the lesser hajj so you can guess the period it happened. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">“The money was seized by the UK government initially, but the Nigerian high commission in London insisted that the money was meant for ‘security’. They got the money back and handed it over to the young man who stashed it away in London in preparation for them leaving power.” </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Although I have not independently verified the authenticity of this disturbing story, I have chosen to share it publicly because it is consistent with a pattern I am deeply familiar with. The coming days will reveal the financial crimes Buhari, his family, and associates have committed against Nigeria.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Unfortunately, some of the crimes Buhari’s people committed in his eight-year reign are reappearing now. It has now come to light, for example, that Betta Chimaobim Edu, the successor to Sadiya Umar Farouq has started the same pattern of theft by her predecessor. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">In a leaked December 20, 2023, memo to the Accountant-General of the Federation, Edu instructed that money designated for “Vulnerable Groups in Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Ogun, and Lagos,” which amounted to more than N500 million, should be paid into the private UBA account of a Bridget Mojisola Oniyelu in violation of Nigeria’s public sector financial regulation law. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The regulation says public money should not, under any circumstance, be paid into private bank accounts. “Any officer who pays public money into a private bank account is deemed to have done so with fraudulent intentions,” section 713 of the act says. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">This is a momentous moment for Tinubu. If he does not fire Edu forthwith and bring her to justice, he has already lost the moral high ground to try Buhari’s corrupt honchos.</span></div>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-88072862732899526182024-02-04T09:35:00.004+00:002024-02-04T09:35:58.373+00:00 From Farouq to Edu: The murky reality of poverty alleviation programs in Nigeria - Luminous Jannamike<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">In Nigeria, a nation where the gulf between the rich and the poor seems to widen by the day, the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development was set up on August 21, 2019, by an executive pronouncement from former President Muhammadu Buhari with the noble intention of bridging this chasm through poverty alleviation programs. <span><a name='more'></a></span>The ministry’s mission included developing humanitarian policies and providing effective coordination of national and international humanitarian interventions. However, a closer inspection reveals a disturbing trend of corruption and inefficiency that not only undermines the purpose of these initiatives but also raises questions about the integrity of their implementation.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Funds Misdirection: The Painful Toll on the Impoverished</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Recently, there have been allegations and investigations into corruption within the programs of the ministry. For instance, the former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, was detained this week by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for questioning over allegations of corruption in the handling of N37.1 billion social intervention funds during her tenure. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The EFCC uncovered a total sum of N37,170,855,753.44 allegedly laundered in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs under former minister Sadiya Umar-Farouk. The funds were transferred from the Federal Government’s coffers and sent to multiple bank accounts, leading to the purchase of luxury items and houses, as well as involvement in Federal Government contracts. However, she has denied any wrongdoing, insisting that she had absolutely no dealings with the contractor alleged to have laundered the said billions of Naira.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Similarly, her successor, Dr. Betta Edu, faced scrutiny after issuing a memo instructing the Accountant-General of the Federation to pay N585 million into the private bank account of a project accountant in her ministry, sparking calls for her sacking and probe of the transaction. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">At the heart of the controversy lies the dubious criteria used to select beneficiaries for these programs. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Consequently, according to insiders and several reports, the unsettling reality is that the process of determining beneficiaries lacks transparency, and funds often end up in the wrong hands, bypassing those in dire need. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">What data are employed to determine who qualifies for aid? The lack of transparency in the selection process renders the poverty alleviation programs a source of frustration rather than empowerment for those in need. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">A study conducted in northeastern Nigeria and published on April 26, 2023, in the Journal of International Humanitarian Action revealed discrepancies in the definition of vulnerability in data gathering, raising questions about how targeting is carried out to identify vulnerable people and its implications for exclusion.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Another study by USAID titled “Cooperation Strategy (CDCS): The United States’ Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) for Nigeria (2020 – 2025)” emphasized the importance of transparency and accountability in data gathering and utilization for various development initiatives by the ministry. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Instances of money meant for the poor being channeled to the wrong recipients in Nigeria include the current scandal at the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, where intervention projects that were supposed to be a relief to the citizens and a boost to the economy became conduits for corruption. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The current allegations made against former minister Sadiya Umar-Farouq and suspended minister Betta Edu regarding mismanagement of public funds and irregular financial transactions, including payments made into personal bank accounts highlight the absence of transparent mechanisms and data reliability in the ministry and raise questions about the extent to which humanitarian programs address the needs of the most vulnerable and marginalized segments of the population. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The allocation of funds to different states and the disbursement of grants have also been subject to controversy, raising doubts about the fairness and impartiality of beneficiary selection processes. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The implication of these is that poverty alleviation initiatives, meant to uplift the downtrodden, are now being scrutinized for their susceptibility to corruption. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">In the bustling markets and streets of Nigeria, citizens voice their concerns, emphasizing that payment processes are shrouded in secrecy and lack a clear mechanism to identify the truly impoverished.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">“How do they even determine who is poor? It feels like tumbom-tumbom (Igbo word for gamble). We don’t have any hope. We hear about these programmes, but the help never seems to come our way,” remarked Mrs. Ifeoma Udegbulam, a food vendor who hawks her goods on a wheelbarrow in Wuse market, Abuja. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The sentiment echoes across the nation, highlighting the widespread skepticism towards the efficacy of these programmes. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">“The poor in my community have not seen this ‘help’ they speak of. They (government officials) say they have a social register, but who are on this list?” questions Samson Danjuma, a youth leader in Karon-majiji, a suburb in the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC). </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Speaking on the impact of these irregularities and systemic lapses on the intended beneficiaries, Amina Ahmed, a social worker registered with the Council of Social Work in Nigeria (CSWN), told Saturday Vanguard, “The irregularities in the implementation of poverty alleviation programs have a profound impact on the intended beneficiaries, leaving many in dire straits despite the purported aid. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">“The extremely poor are left out, and the failure to accurately identify and support those in genuine need perpetuates the cycle of poverty and deprivation, further deepening the divide between the privileged and the marginalized in Nigerian society.” </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">However, there had been cases very poor Nigerians benefited from the cash sharing of the ministry especially in the northern parts of Nigeria.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Financial Aberrations:</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">A Shocking Revelation Meanwhile, yet another startling revelation has emerged, shedding light on the financial dimensions of corruption. The Humanitarian Affairs ministry awarded a staggering N438 million contract for the mere review of the social register, a task that has raised eyebrows across the nation. The contract was awarded to a company with alleged ties to the Minister of Interior, Mr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, suggesting potential cronyism. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The exorbitant figure raises eyebrows and prompts citizens to question the motives behind such seemingly routine tasks. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">“N438m just to review the social register? That’s daylight robbery. That’s an outrageous sum for a review! Who is benefiting from this?” questions Adeolu Adewale, a civil rights activist and convener, Anti-Graft Advocates Network. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">“We cannot continue like this. The impoverished deserve better, and we demand answers from those in power,” he adds. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Prior to her suspension, Dr. Betta Edu, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, highlighted shortcomings in the budget allocation for the ministry. She led officials from her ministry and its affiliated parastatals to defend the 2024 budget before the Joint National Assembly Committee on Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, chaired by Senator Idiat Adebule.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">She criticized the 2024 budget allocation of N532.5bn, deeming it inadequate in light of the inflationary rate and the ministry’s mandate to alleviate poverty in Nigeria. Additionally, she pointed out that the capital budget ceiling had been reduced, a move that did not align with the ministry’s imperative to effectively address poverty. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">However, an official in the ministry, who did not want to be named because he was not authorized to speak on the failures of the system as well as the corruption scandals linked with Dr. Edu and her predecessor, said, “It doesn’t matter who is in charge or how much money is released; we never seem to get it right. We need a complete overhaul of how these poverty alleviation programs operate.” </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">When asked for her comment, Fatima Ibrahim, a lecturer at Isa Mustapha Agwai Polytechnic in Nasarawa State, said, “The system is rigged against the poor. Without accurate data and a transparent process, how can we trust that with the release of more money to the ministry, aid will reach the right people?”</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Historical Echoes: A Scam Spanning Administrations</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">This saga of corruption isn’t confined to the present; it stretches back to the Buhari administration and continues to cast its ominous shadow into the Tinubu era. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Under the Buhari administration, there were reports of irregularities in the disbursement of funds under the National Social Investment Programmes Agency (NSIPA) initiated by the government. The NSIPA was designed to provide financial support to vulnerable individuals, but concerns were raised about the lack of transparency in the selection of beneficiaries and the effectiveness of the programme in reaching those in genuine need. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">During this time, there were allegations of inflated contracts and mismanagement of funds within the poverty alleviation programmes, raising suspicions of financial impropriety. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has recovered about N39.8bn out of N44.8bn allegedly embezzled from the government account by Halima Shehu, former National Coordinator of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIPA) appointed by former President Buhari. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Under the Tinubu administration, which succeeded the Buhari administration, similar concerns persisted regarding the transparency and effectiveness of poverty alleviation programmes of the ministry. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">In light of these challenges, there is a growing consensus among experts, civil society organizations, and concerned citizens about the urgent need for a comprehensive reform of poverty alleviation strategies in Nigeria. This reform would encompass measures to enhance transparency, accountability, and effectiveness in the administration of aid programs, ensuring that the most vulnerable segments of the population receive the support they require.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Physical Palliatives as a Solution:</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">In the midst of these revelations, a growing sentiment calls for a shift in approach – a move towards physical palliatives. Many Nigerians argue that physical palliatives rather than cash payments would serve as a more tangible and less corruptible form of aid. They posit that direct assistance, devoid of bureaucratic red tape, might offer a more immediate and impactful solution. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">“If they put 500 buses in any city transport costs will drop. That’s palliative. That will help the poor,” said Benard Oko in Enugu.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">“They can help the poor settle medical bills, he added.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">“If they gave us food or materials, at least we would know it’s not going into someone’s pocket,” suggests Hamza Alkali, a farmer in the nation’s capital.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Similarly, Gabriel Tsuzom, a furniture maker, asserts: “We need real help, not just promises. Physical palliatives can bridge the gap where these programmes fall short.”</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Ongoing Investigations: Navigating the Path to Accountability.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">As investigations continue, the delicate balance between exposing wrongdoing and ensuring fairness becomes crucial. The flaws within the Humanitarian Affairs ministry’s programmes threaten not only the credibility of poverty alleviation efforts but also the well-being of countless Nigerians. The time is ripe for a recalibration of priorities and a reformation of strategies that genuinely prioritize the welfare of the nation’s most vulnerable. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">“While Nigerians believe that change is possible, first, we must see accountability and reform in these programs. The accused should have their day in court, and justice should swiftly be served on those guilty of embezzling funds intended for the poor and vulnerable,” stated Barrister Emmanuel Ivoke with a chat Saturday Vanguard.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Conclusion:</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The story of Nigeria’s poverty alleviation programs is one of unfulfilled promises and lost hope. As the country grapples with the economic fallout from a global pandemic and internal displacements due to violent conflicts, as well as natural disasters such as flooding and erosion, the need for effective and corruption-free support programs is more urgent than ever. This situation calls for the government and its agencies to step up and safeguard the interests of the most vulnerable in society.</span></div>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-15117776754883126402024-02-04T07:53:00.002+00:002024-02-04T09:24:22.155+00:00 Betta Edu, Sadiya Farouq and their humanitarian sleaze - Rotimi Fasan<img border="0" src="https://www.blogger.com/img/transparent.gif" /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXa_Y98w7p6wR8FmXTDs0O62zVPhnENcEqPSqNVNS2z23Q0yJ_XWDo2Oc29ehxeIvgZYz_cifrQ5XgdpUCEKRc22AwKMc9qhbKn3KHuGtN4ieXBNih7U-McE1oraVt3sFKyINHQheipdILwJKrdEngbU2ZYnTpv9-mVZjPWUX9C4MPDTORp387uT32v-2C/s320/image.png" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-align: start;" /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">There are many Nigerians, if asked, who would say that there are better ways President Bola Tinubu could have handled the scandals in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation. <span><a name='more'></a></span>But such Nigerians should also be ready to admit that the President has done the least he could and should in the circumstances by not only ordering a probe of Betta Edu, the minister in charge of the Ministry but also suspending her from office until the conclusion of investigation into the affairs of the ministry under her.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Any right-thinking person would imagine that the action the President has taken is ordinarily the appropriate step any leader should take when confronted with similar situations, but the bar of accountability has been set so low by President Tinubu’s predecessor in office that any ordinary move by the current president must appear extraordinary. The tough decisions the president has had to take in the last eight months have meant there is very little to praise about the administration. Where such opportunities have presented themselves (and these were in the early weeks following the inauguration of the government), they’ve been short-lived. In ordering the probe of Betta Edu and suspending her, the president’s action should be understood for what it is- a tough call. If he would not be praised, he should not be excoriated either.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Dr Edu is a rising star, one of those the president would rightly want to show off as evidence his administration has put in place a robust mentoring and/or succession system that thrives in the deliberate nurturing of the young for leadership in the country. Which is to say, this was not an easy decision to make but it is the right decision to make for an erring lieutenant at this time. Not only is the decision good for Nigeria, but it is also good for the image of his government and sends a stern message to others still in government to brace up for the demands of their office or be prepared for the exit door. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">This was what President Buhari failed to do for the most part of eight years when he and his subordinates harangued Nigerians with their suffocating tales of fighting corruption. All of this while the President was in fact abetting it by his indifference to the actions and inactions of his lieutenants whom he simply appointed into office and thereafter left to their own devices. Isn’t it ironic that a government that has been loudest in its claim of fighting corruption, the loudest since 1999, is now emerging as the mill factory of corruption architects?</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Or how else can anyone explain how one of the youngest ministries created to directly address the immediate needs of poor Nigerians in the cabinet of any Nigerian president should be so complicit in perpetrating corruption on such a grand scale as Nigerians are getting to know? After all, what led to the opening of the Pandora's box was the corruption scandals in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation started as a probe of how over N37 billion was supposedly expended on addressing the humanitarian needs of Nigerians and alleviating the material poverty of their lives couldn’t be convincingly traced to the supposed beneficiaries. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">This was a question Nigerians had asked over and again since the first few months the ministry unveiled its mandate under Sadiya Umar Farouq, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs in the Buhari government. The rot in that ministry became most glaring when the Ministry came up with the impossible tale of providing school children with food in those forbidding months of prolonged lock-down at the height of the outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic between 2020 and 2021. Who were these school children that officials of this ministry claimed they were feeding?</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Where was the location of the nameless households and neighbourhoods that enjoyed the so-called palliatives that Mrs Farouq said she distributed and received these palliatives? The lies were hair-raising and simply couldn’t hold. Nigerians screamed and cried for explanation but they could have been talking to statues as President Buhari went silent on them. His silence no doubt fuelled the rumour then that the relationship between the former president and the minister was more than official, harking back to an earlier rumour that he was about to make her the marital junior of Aisha. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">It was a baseless rumour but it was one the peddlers and probably not a few Nigerians found plausible because of the way Buhari appeared stone-deaf to the pleas of Nigerians for a probe of the activities of the minister and her ministry, beginning from around 2019. Like the nondescript ministers that populated the Buhari government, Mrs. Farouq’s time in office was like a blank page. She achieved nothing remarkable beyond her apparent incompetence and the strong suspicion that she was guilty of financial mismanagement. The cash-strapped Tinubu administration was stung into looking for money from anywhere it might be lurking and got a special investigator to turn the searchlight on suspected pilferers of our commonwealth.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The investigation that started with the Central Bank under Godwin Emefiele has since expanded into the sleaze that went on the name of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation in the ministry that goes by that name. The investigation wasn’t meant to quickly pivot to the new minister in the saddle as she was less than eight months in office. But it was coming closer home and some persons who probably couldn’t wait for that to happen (perhaps to embarrass the Tinubu government) decided to open a can of worms by leaking memos that showed how contrary to the public sector financial regulation act of 2009, the minister ordered the release of almost six hundred million nairas, funds meant for official purpose, into the account of a private citizen, Bridget Oniyelu from where it was meant to be disbursed for the purpose it was intended.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Was this corruption fighting back? Anyhow, the Ministry owned up to this infraction, saying it’s in line with extant policies. Was this a case of ignorance of official regulations or sheer naivety? Is it also part of that policy to pay for a flight to a state that owns no airport? Perhaps, people were doing this in that ministry before Betta Edu became minister but she’s the one now carrying the can and she has no choice other than to carry it with equanimity until she’s been fully investigated and if found innocent, cleared. If she is, however, found to have abused her office, then she should be allowed to go. Who knows, the tide could still turn in her favour. If that does happen, she should consider herself lucky and sin no more.</span></div>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-47795856889517188722024-02-03T21:40:00.002+00:002024-02-03T21:40:12.296+00:00Betta Edu and the crime scene called Nigeria - Ikechukwu Amaechi<p></p> <div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img height="199" src="https://cdn.vanguardngr.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/image-430.png" width="320" /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Dr Betta Edu, the vivacious and chirpy politician from Cross River State, must be introspecting now. <span><a name='more'></a></span>Just yesterday, she had the world at her feet, literally, and Nigeria was her oyster, where, it seemed, she could achieve anything she wished. And she achieved a lot. Born October 27, 1986, Betta chalked up incredible attainments in only 37 years. Right from the time she completed her secondary education in 2001 at the Federal Government Girls College, Calabar, and obtained her first degree in medicine and surgery from the University of Calabar in 2009, her rise to superstardom has been incredible. In 2015, Governor Ben Ayade appointed her as Special Adviser on Community and Primary Healthcare. Since then, she has been on a helluva of a journey. Shortly after, she became Commissioner for Health and in 2020, she also doubled as the chairman of the Cross River State COVID-19 Taskforce. It was a measure of her charisma that in August 2020, she became national chairperson of the Nigeria Health Commissioners Forum.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">A Fellow of the African Institute of Public Health Professionals, in March 2022, Betta Edu, transcending state politics, became the youngest national Woman Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC). She became a role model of sorts for not only young people but also women, so much so that in July 2023, the Asabe Bashir-led Maryam Babangida National Centre for Women Development, in collaboration with the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, bestowed on her an award of excellence in leadership for gender inclusion and women empowerment in recognition of her “commitment to championing the cause of empowering women, children and other vulnerable groups in Nigeria.” Three years before then, the same Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development gifted her the Nigeria Quintessential Woman Award, and the National Youth Council of Nigeria gave her another award of excellence.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Then, as an icing on her cake of accomplishments, President Bola Tinubu nominated her minister. She was promptly cleared by the Senate and in August 2023, she was sworn in as Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, making her the first female minister from Cross River State and the youngest in the Fourth Republic. But like the Evil Forest in Chinua Achebe’s magnum opus, Things Fall Apart, that kills a man on the day that his life is sweetest to him, Betta Edu has fallen from grace to grass, becoming in the process the butt of all asinine jokes and ridiculed as the poster girl of corruption in Nigeria. She has been shoved off her high perch, suspended by Tinubu, who denied her access to the presidential villa, and handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for probe. Her travel documents have been seized, laying her utterly bare. Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Abel Olumuyiwa Enitan, has taken over the leadership of the ministry.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">For all intents and purposes, Betta Edu’s roller-coaster trajectory in the corridors of power has come to a dramatic end. The only thing that could equal her spectacular fall from grace to grass is her equally meteoric rise from grass to grace. She has been thoroughly humiliated. In some climes where self-esteem is still considered priceless, she should be on the suicide watch list. But this is Nigeria. Those who have committed worse crimes are in higher offices right now.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">No matter what the outcome of the EFCC probe is and I don’t see how she will be exonerated of financial malfeasance having owned up to the vexatious memo seeking to transfer N585 million of public funds into private account contrary to statutory regulations – Betta Edu will not return to the Tinubu cabinet. Chapter 7 of the Federal Government Financial Regulations, section 713, which unequivocally warns that public and personal money should not intermingle, states: “Personal money shall in no way circumstances be paid into a government bank account, nor shall any public money be paid into a private bank account. An officer who pays public money into a private account is deemed to have done so with fraudulent intention.”</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">And that is exactly what Ms Edu did. Did she not know about that regulation? I bet she did. If she knew, why did she flout it so whimsically? Impunity, knowing full well that the act of public officials paying public money into private accounts is the norm. To be sure, this is not the first time Betta Edu will be entangled in a scandal. Her stewardship as the chairperson of the Cross River State COVID-19 Taskforce was not without reproach. The Cross River State chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) passed a vote of no confidence in her, alleging professional misconduct bordering on fraud in her handling of the COVID-19 assignment. In other climes, such baggage would have been an issue during her ministerial screening. Not in Nigeria. Both the security agencies and the Senate never bothered. The Imperial President, on whose mandate everyone stands, wanted her to be a minister, so, a minister she must be.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">But I am not worried about Edu. Her goose is cooked. She will be lucky not to be jailed. President Tinubu will milk to the fullest any mileage her humpty-dumpty fall will give him as a leader not in bed with corruption. Already, for taking action against the minister, many Nigerians have festooned him in anti-corruption robes. That is his luck. But if anything, the Edugate, as the Betta Edu scandal has been dubbed, has confirmed the fact that Nigeria is a huge crime scene. It is an embarrassing systemic failure and though Tinubu has, no doubt, ticked all the right boxes with the actions he has taken so far, the specter of corruption is not about to be exorcised primarily because the president cannot champion that cause. The reason why the Betta Edu scandal blew open was not because the system flagged it but because aggrieved insiders who have an axe to grind with her for contesting their sole proprietorship of the stealing franchise in the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry leaked the memo. The trouble in the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry started last October when Ms. Halima Shehu was appointed the National Coordinator and CEO of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), a parastatal in the ministry. Edu apparently would have preferred Dele Yakubu, now Senior Special Assistant to Tinubu on Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, for the job. She lost out in the power game. The minister, who is a signatory to the NSIPA account, either out of greed or spite for the coordinator, started making withdrawals to the tune of about N3 billion without the knowledge of the NSIPA coordinator. On finding out, Ms Shehu, in a desperate bid to retain control over the agency and its finances, transferred the remaining money out of the accounts that Edu had access to. The suspended minister moved against her and the EFCC hauled her in. Not wanting to go down alone and aware of what Edu had done with the money she unilaterally pulled out of the NSIPA account, memos that were hitherto safely tucked away, started flying around.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">But there is nothing new. Since its creation by the Muhammadu Buhari presidency, the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry has been a cesspit of corruption with no accountability whatsoever. It is good that Edu’s predecessor, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, is in the law’s crosshairs now over allegations of corruption in the handling of N37.1 billion social intervention funds during her tenure. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The rot in the Humanitarian Ministry goes round and every well-meaning Nigerian should be worried. The Edugate is only the tip of the axiomatic iceberg. Ours is a country where people pay millions of Naira to secure ministerial appointments and committee chairmanship is offered to the highest bidders in the National Assembly. Those orchestrating these heists are high priests on the presidential altar. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Nobody borrows money to secure ministerial appointments in the name of service. That is why Nigeria has become a huge crime scene. While Betta Edu’s fall from grace to grass is gratifying, those squawking that Tinubu has turned the corner on the anti-corruption fight are mistaken. It is still a steep climb to sanity.</span></div><div class="grid-content-wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; column-gap: var(--grid-content-gap); display: grid; grid-template-areas: "navigation-area content-area sidebar-area"; grid-template-columns: 5.25rem minmax(45.5rem, 100%) 18.75rem; margin-top: var(--spacing-xls);"><div class="content-box-wrapper navigation-area" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; font-family: Nunito, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; grid-area: navigation-area;"></div><div class="content-box-wrapper content-area below-content-sidebar" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Nunito, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; grid-area: content-area;"><aside class="widget widget_block widget_media_image" id="block-86" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></aside></div></div>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-38488894809044227542024-02-03T20:50:00.002+00:002024-02-03T20:50:54.653+00:00The economy is wobbling, and the govt is fumbling - Ugoji Egbujo<div style="text-align: center;"><img height="247" src="https://cdn.vanguardngr.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/bbb46e3f-9bd5-4cea-a678-eeda8aeefa0d-e1688801030150.jpg" width="320" /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">While the naira gasped for breath, the nation sent 400 tourists to Dubai to fill the gallery in a climate change conference. <span><a name='more'></a></span>Two weeks ago, the President dabbed powder on the wound. He announced a cut in his entourage and those of his wife and ministers. The general attitude of the country to the looming disaster seems surreal. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">At N1400 for a dollar, alarm bells should be ringing. But in the highest offices in the land and amongst politicians, the dollar has become the preferred instrument of settlement and lubrication. Nothing moves the leaders of this country. In the middle of this economic tornado, a minister signed off air tickets to a non-existent Kogi airport. The new government met a mess. But it has been sloppy and haphazard.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">At the outset, the President started bold reforms and received accolades. He said he removed the petrol subsidy to save the economy. In May last year, the subsidy was in the neighborhood of 300-400 per liter. Indeed, that subsidy had gone cancerous. But the President has run into a foreseeable storm. Many said he spoke before thinking. Others said he did it standing. The Igbo say when a child is conceived in a standing position, chances are it will be mad.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The subsidy the President yanked off on day one returned with a swagger through the backdoor. Now, seven months after the President received medals for removing it, the President is illegally and clandestinely running a heavier subsidy. He will argue national security. Yes, the masses are tired of fruitless sacrifices. But our West African neighbors have resumed feasting on our cheap fuel. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The subsidy removal has effectively failed. The Dangote and other refineries coming on stream will need a level, open playing field. But the President, having failed to trim his government and cut costs, now lacks the conviction, moral and political, to see through the policy. Pride and propaganda have inhibited the government. While removing the subsidy, the President and his team didn’t think deeply. They either didn’t see that dollar illiquidity could strangulate the process or overestimated themselves and their ability to drag in foreign capital. The shit has hit the fan. But that isn’t the tragedy. Our politicians are aloof. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">On resumption, the President floated the naira. Prohibition on certain items was lifted. Free market folks clapped. At the time, the naira exchanged for 700 to the dollar in the parallel market. The President said the true value of the naira was below 700. The government said the vast gulf between the official and black market rates fueled dollar racketeering and discouraged foreign investors. Seven months later, the naira is in the mud. The exchange rate is about N1400 to the dollar at the parallel market. The gulf between the rates has widened. Foreign investments have retracted from the confusion. Inflation has ripped the roof, and nobody is talking about job creation because the economic environment is tremulous.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">If the President and his team had no clear solution to the mountain of the backlog of dollar obligations left by Buhari and Emefiele, why did they allow the naira to go into this cage fight? Now, the naira lies battered and bleeding, and the dollar saunters around in homes and offices as the underground national currency. The tragedy isn’t the predicament of the naira. The tragedy is the casual detachment of governors, ministers, and senior govt officials from this frightening reality. So without wrinkles, the federal government travels cap in hand from Asia to Europe, scouring and scavenging, looking for pints of dollars to transfuse into the economy to resuscitate the dying naira. Some say the President will find his rhythm. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The President must show urgency. The banks are feeding fat on the situation, selling dollars through the backdoor, but nobody barks at them. The dollar racketeering of the Buhari administration has returned with a vengeance. The widening gulf between the rates makes control impossible. Foreign direct investments are too paranoid to dip a foot in. In an import-dependent economy, this is a combustible mixture. People are becoming poorer daily. Food and medicines are going out of reach. The youths are jobless and hungry. With an unstable and perishing naira, with the inevitable return of fuel subsidy, with rampant banditry and kidnapping, the future looks utterly bleak. The President is too relaxed. His body language allows laxity.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The solution isn’t too difficult. Nigeria is a resilient country. The masses are forgiving. The population is youthful and politically docile. This gives the President ample room to mobilize the nation to face adversity. He can think it through, they won’t stampede him. However, the nation and its youths need a clear vision. Vision, not propaganda, creates enduring hope. The President might show a little urgency. A clear vision of a prosperous and united country of equal citizens must be painted with a brush of honesty. No outlandish propaganda. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The President must lead by example. If he preaches cost cutting, as he should, then he must trim his cabinet and operating costs to the bone. Clear targets must be handed out to ministers and service chiefs. Those who fail must be sacked and replaced. The country must be run like a business. Governors will watch and fall in line. All traces of frivolity and wastefulness must be expunged and banished. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Security agencies must get a special license to stamp out the use of dollars as underground currency in Nigerian politics and the public sector. The service chiefs must stamp out crude oil theft and banditry or be fired. We can’t continue borrowing what we are losing to thieves at home. We can’t continue the crowdfunding of ransoms. The activities of banks must be tightly controlled, and whistleblowers must be rewarded promptly. When we find a breathing space, then we can do constitutional amendments to devolve power to the periphery. The naira is dying. The President cannot continue with the equanimity of a Babalawo.</span></div>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-47771429670844786332024-02-03T12:19:00.002+00:002024-02-03T12:19:09.983+00:00 If the Nigerian dog dies, the fleas will not survive - Owei Lakemfa<p style="text-align: center;"> <img height="320" src="https://cdn.vanguardngr.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Owei-e1685083829970.jpeg" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" width="313" /></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">BANDITS Thursday night attacked Gangara, in Jibia Local Government of Katsina State. They killed five, abducted 24, and burnt down the market and several houses.<span><a name='more'></a></span> The attack was one of a number, carried out in the last two weeks in the area. Previous targets had included a military camp and a police checkpoint with several killed. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Meanwhile, there has been no respite even after the December 23-25, 2023 massacres in Plateau State in which over 200 were killed, at least 500 injured and 10,000 rendered homeless. Last Tuesday, despite a 24-hour curfew, over 30 were killed in Mangu. The Boko Haram terrorists continue their attacks in the North-East while bandits reign in the North-West, especially Zamfara, Kaduna, Sokoto and Katsina states. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Given the state of virtual anarchy, especially in the North, I would have expected the issue of insecurity to be the preoccupation of the Northern Senators Forum, NSF. But when it addressed the nation last week, insecurity was not its concern. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">There is the serious issue of 20 million out-of-school children most of them in the North. But this does not appear to be a main headache of the NSF.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Nigeria is a poverty capital of the world with an estimated 82.9 million Nigerians under the poverty line. Most of these victims of poverty are in the North. But this does not appear to be an issue worth tackling by the NSF. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">There are about three million internally-displaced persons in the country, virtually all in the North. But this does not appear to be a headache to the NSF.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The present preoccupation of the 58 senators from the North, going by the statement issued on Monday, January 22, 2024 by their Spokesperson, Senator Suleiman Kawu Sumaila, NNPP- Kano South, are two. He said: “As representatives of the people at the national level (Senate), we are committed to addressing the concerns and feelings of our constituents regarding certain decisions and policies put forth by the Federal Government; and the lopsidedness in the distribution and allocation of resources in the 2024 budget, relocation of some federal agencies from Abuja to Lagos.”</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">These are tendentious issues which detract from the primary concerns of the Nigerian people who are under siege from bandits, hunger and of course, the political class that primarily takes care of its own interest, not that of the country. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">To begin with, since the budget is scrutinised, and passes through the Senate before being adopted by the National Assembly, what stopped the 58 senators, claimed by the NSF, from raising the alleged lopsidedness and correcting it? I do not think it is a case that the remaining 48 senators overrode their colleagues. It will also be an insult for Senator Summaila to insinuate that the NSF members were dozing while the 2024 Budget was being discussed and passed.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Secondly, the Senator was vague on how the budgetary allocation did not favour the North and how inversely it favoured the South. It appears to me a strategy of trying to corner more of the budget in the name of the North. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">I am sure if issues were raised in the NSF, the Senator would be more interested in addressing fundamental issues of the budget such as some 30 per cent going for debt servicing. If their concern about the budget was that not enough money was allocated to recruit more security personnel in the fight against insecurity, they would have gotten my support. If the concern of the NSF was that the budget should have addressed the issue of getting out-of-school children into school, it would have received the support of virtually all Nigerians. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">In any case, why is it always some noise about allocation of funds, never what contributions are made to the national purse? Why are people like Senator Summaila always obsessed with sharing the national cake, but never about how the cake is baked?</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Why are they not interested in building the country like Ahmadu Bello, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Dennis Osadebay and Obafemi Awolowo did in the First Republic rather than a mere continuation of military misrule? Why are they merely interested in auctioning the public assets built by past leaders rather than building on the legacy of the latter?</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I find the second leg of the NSF protest, even more ridiculous. This is because while reacting to policies, they are expected to analyse them and present their position. But to merely proclaim their rejection like a religious doctrine, is unhelpful and counterproductive. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, stated that the planned relocation of some of its offices to Lagos is a “decongestion action plan designed to optimise the operational environment of the bank.” It added that: “This initiative aims to ensure compliance with building safety standards and enhance the efficient utilisation of our office space.” If any senator were to react negatively to this as Senator Summaila did, I expected him to present facts countering these arguments.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The Senator’s reaction gives the mistaken impression that the central bank of a country must be situated in the capital. This is incorrect. For instance, the European Central Bank is not in Berlin, the capital of Germany, but in Frankfurt. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Government says it wants to move the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria , FAAN, headquarters from Abuja to Lagos because the latter is the commercial capital and the hub of aviation business in Nigeria. Again I expect any senator opposing such move to give reasons. Human beings must show rationality; the aviation headquarters of a country does not necessarily need to be in the capital. In Germany, for instance, its aviation administrative headquarters is in Brunwick (Braurschweig) some 235.3 kilometres from Berlin, the country’s capital.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">When the capital was moved from Lagos to Abuja, there was an unreasonable rush by agencies to move to the new capital. The Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA, for instance built a huge edifice the Shippers’ House in Abuja as its new headquarters even when Abuja does not have a river. It was President Olusegun Obasanjo that ordered NPA back to Lagos. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">In the same vein, I do not see the sense in the headquarters of the oil companies being in Lagos rather than the Niger Delta where oil is produced.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Despite his claims to the contrary, Senator Summaila’s statement is inciting and is maybe getting its intended results with some groups claiming the planned relocation is an attempt to marginalise the North as if Abuja belongs to a section, and not the entire country. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Those who play ethnic politics must know that they are like fleas feeding on the Nigerian dog; if it dies, they are unlikely to survive.</span></div>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-22258197927637765972024-02-03T12:13:00.004+00:002024-02-03T12:13:34.728+00:00Man's side chick drags his wife to court for threatening her with death<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">A side chick identified as Mavis Munenge has taken legal action against her boyfriend’s wife, Lynette Machon, for sending her death threats.<span><a name='more'></a></span> H-Metro reported that Mavis Munenge filed for a peace order, alleging that Lynette Machona visited her workplace on December 2. She claimed Lynette issued her with threats and expressed her readiness to face legal consequences for causing her harm.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">She said;</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">“On December 2, she came to my workplace and threatened me, saying she was prepared to go to jail after harming me. I told her that her husband, Kelvin, told me that they were divorced.” The situation escalated on December 9 when Lynette, accompanied by a friend, allegedly insulted and threatened Mavis. She allegedly warned her and stated that she was going to consult a native doctor in the Gokwe area of Zimbabwe if their relationship continued. Lynette reportedly made another appearance on December 13, claiming she had just returned from Gokwe. Lynette Machona, however, denied issuing death threats but admitted warning Mavis to stay away from her husband. She said;</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">"She said I was my husband’s ex-wife, yet I’m his wife. I begged her to leave my husband. I’m just asking her to leave my husband alone and stop harassing me.” In response to Mavis Munenge’s plea for protection, Magistrate Tamari Chibindi granted the peace order, cautioning Lynette Machona to refrain from approaching Mavis at her workplace.</span></div><div class="meta" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #9b9b9b; font-family: arial, serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 5px; overflow: auto;"></div>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-69630763175086896672024-02-03T12:08:00.002+00:002024-02-03T12:08:08.594+00:00Man goes viral for getting five women pregnant at the same time (video)<div style="text-align: center;"><img height="203" src="https://alexis.lindaikejisblog.com/photos/shares/Log%20Log_1705511426.png" style="font-family: georgia;" width="320" /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">An American man has gone viral online after he reportedly got five women pregnant at the same time. The women had their baby showers together on Sunday, January 14. <span><a name='more'></a></span>In a video seen online, some of the pregnant women were happily flaunting their baby bump.</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span></div><summary class="description" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px !important; height: auto !important; line-height: 21px;"><div class="my_div" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: auto !important;"><iframe allowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true" class="instagram-media instagram-media-rendered" data-instgrm-payload-id="instagram-media-payload-0" frameborder="0" height="881" id="instagram-embed-0" scrolling="no" src="https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2NQpFQtxEn/embed/?cr=1&v=14&wp=540&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lindaikejisblog.com&rp=%2F2024%2F1%2Fman-goes-viral-for-getting-five-women-pregnant-at-the-same-time-video-2.html#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A2849%2C%22ls%22%3A1835%2C%22le%22%3A1963%7D" style="border-color: rgb(219, 219, 219); border-radius: 3px; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px 0px 12px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 2px);"></iframe></div></summary>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-23960367940060631992024-02-03T11:26:00.001+00:002024-02-03T11:26:02.926+00:00"Your first fruit is for me, not for the church," Pastor John Anosike tells members and church excos (video)<div style="text-align: center;"><img height="275" src="https://alexis.lindaikejisblog.com/photos/shares/1_1705571297.PNG" width="320" /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Pastor John Anosike has told his church members and executives that they should “honor” him by paying their first fruit to him.<span><a name='more'></a></span> The pastor said this while preaching to members during Sunday Service. The topic of the first fruit has been debated by many over the years. First fruit means giving your entire first salary of the year (January salary) to the church. However, preaching to members, Pastor Anosike told them that the first fruit was meant for him, not for the church. He added that if members pay their first fruit to him, they will see wonders by the middle of the year, otherwise he will return their money to them. Watch him speak in the video below…</span> </div><summary class="description" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: auto !important; line-height: 21px;"><div class="my_div" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: auto !important;"><iframe allowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true" class="instagram-media instagram-media-rendered" data-instgrm-payload-id="instagram-media-payload-0" frameborder="0" height="662" id="instagram-embed-0" scrolling="no" src="https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2PIuZptRo9/embed/?cr=1&v=14&wp=540&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lindaikejisblog.com&rp=%2F2024%2F1%2Fyour-first-fruit-is-for-me-not-for-the-church-pastor-john-anosike-tells-members-and-church-excos-video.html#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A4248%2C%22ls%22%3A2838%2C%22le%22%3A3578.5%7D" style="border-color: rgb(219, 219, 219); border-radius: 3px; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px 0px 12px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 2px);"></iframe></div></summary>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101271648119645484.post-76968658536287357692024-02-03T11:22:00.002+00:002024-02-03T11:22:07.304+00:00I will not go out to ban mining activities - Makinde says after explosion caused by illegal miners rocked Ibadan<div style="text-align: center;"><img height="232" src="https://alexis.lindaikejisblog.com/photos/shares/1_1705575590.PNG" width="320" /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has said that he will not ban mining activities in the state. Makinde stated this while speaking on the explosion that rocked Bodija in Ibadan, Oyo State, on Tuesday night, Jan. 16.<span><a name='more'></a></span> Makinde blamed the explosion on illegal miners who stored explosive devices in one of the buildings in Bodija. But when asked during an interview on Channels TV Politics Today if he was considering banning mining in the state following the incident, Makinde said, “My approach has been a little bit different. “I will not go out to ban mining activities because there are people who are legally mining in the state. They may be international investors. You will give the impression that this is a lawless environment where we will not obey our contracts, what we signed with people. “It is a difficult route to take. When we are swimming through the situation we have found ourselves, we will not have a knee-jerk reaction to the issue.”</span></div>Aitale Abiamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01742052990271754715noreply@blogger.com