The Kano State government on Tuesday ordered civil servants in the state to work from home and await further instruction on the matter.
The Kano State Commissioner of Information, Malam Muhammad Garba, who disclosed this to journalists in Kano, said the decision was taken at a stakeholders’ meeting held on Monday.
According to him, the move was one of the measures taken by the government to check the spread of COVID-19 in the state.
However, workers on essential services such as the healthcare service providers, fire service, water board, teaching staff, security guards, and the media are not affected by the directive.
The government also imposed a fresh ban on viewing and event centres across Kano State.
Kano State currently has 2, 617 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 70 fatalities, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
The Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Tuesday the average bus fare paid by Nigerian commuters within the city increased by 79 percent in one year.
NBS, which disclosed this in its Transport Fare Watch, said the average fare paid by Nigerians increased from N198.58 in December 2019 to N354.9 in December last year.
According to the report published in December, the average bus journey within the city was up 79 percent Year-on-Year; and 6 percent on Month-on-Month basis.
The average intercity bus journey also went up by 41 percent year-on-year and 5 percent in month-on-month basis
For Okada ride, the average price paid by Nigerians was up 125 percent on year-to-year and 60 percent on month-to-month.
Average airfare went up by 19 percent, year-on-year and 0.42 percent month-on-month.
“Residents of Zamfara, Bauchi and Cross River paid the highest bus fare while those in Abia, Anambra, and Borno paid the lowest within the city,” the report stated.
The Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mohammed Abba, has appointed one Ayo Olowonihi as the new commandant of the anti-graft agency’s academy.
Olowonihi, who is a director in EFCC, takes over from Itam Obono as head of the commission’s academy.
The EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, announced this in a statement on Monday.
The statement read: “The Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Mohammed Abba, has appointed Detective Commander Ayo Olowonihi as Commandant, EFCC Academy, Karu, Abuja.
“Olowonihi takes over from Itam Obono, a Deputy Commissioner of Police
“The appointment which is with immediate effect was consummated with a hand-over ceremony today, Monday, January 18, 2021, attended by both Olowonihi and Obono with heads of departments and units of the Academy in attendance.”
“Obono charged staff to give Olowonihi the best cooperation, stating, ‘I’ll ask that, Ayo who is coming is not new. He has been here before and the work will take speed. Give him the best cooperation. The little hurdles that are there, you may be able to surmount faster than we have done.”
“In his response, Olowonihi appreciated Obono and wished him well at his new assignment. He pledged to take the Academy, which is the brain of the organisation, to where it should be.”
The new commandant was suspended by the former acting chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, in 2015.
He was later demoted from Grade Level 17 to Grade 16 in 2017.
The Federal Government said on Monday students returning to schools across the country are not required to undergo COVID-19 test before they would be allowed into the premises.
Some schools particularly in Lagos had directed their students to undergo the COVID-19 test before resumption.
But the Director of Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Education, Ben Goong, who reacted to the development in a statement, asked school authorities to refrain from asking students or parents to undergo the COVID-19 test before they are allowed to enter the schools.
He said: “The Federal Ministry of Education says no COVID-19 test is required for returning students to be admitted into their schools.
“Only temperature checks should be carried out on students and any other person crossing any school gate.
“School authorities should therefore refrain from asking students or parents to undergo COVID-19 test before they are accepted in their schools.”
President Muhammadu Buhari said on Monday his administration was fully committed to the fight against graft and diversification of the country’s economy.
Buhari stated this at the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Committee of Heads of State and Government on the African Peer Review Mechanism (APR Forum) and Nigeria in Abuja.
He said: “We remain fully committed to promoting the good governance practice enshrined in the ideals and vision of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development which gave birth to this review mechanism.
“Our administration has continued to vigorously pursue security, economic diversification and anti-corruption as the main thrust of the national change agenda.”
The president said Nigeria had since the first Peer Review in 2008 implemented the national programme of action.
President Buhari added: “The totality of this strategy is premised on the promotion of democracy, respect for the rule of law and human rights, gender equality, and by far the largest investment in social change in Nigeria’s post-independence history.”
He stressed that his administration would continue to participate in the review exercise, adding that Nigeria is ready to join the league of African Union Member States that would undergo the second peer review exercise.
Buhari expressed the hope that Nigeria would continue on the pathway to a peaceful, secure and more democratic nation.
Nigeria on Monday recorded 1,617 fresh COVID-19 cases.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), which disclosed this on its Twitter handle, said the new COVID-19 cases were recorded in 17 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
It added that the number of COVID-19 fatalities in Nigeria stood at 1,449 as of Monday night.
Also, the total number of confirmed cases increased to 112,004.
Meanwhile, 89,939 COVID-19 patients have been discharged from various isolation facilities in the country.
The breakdown of the figure on a state-by-state basis revealed the following: Lagos (776), Kaduna (147), Kwara (131), FCT (102), Plateau (78), Edo (59), Ogun (53), Osun (45), Rivers (37), and Taraba (36).
Others are – Nasarawa (34), Adamawa (33), Kano (26), Delta (20), Ebonyi (16), Bayelsa (11), Gombe (11), and Borno (2).
The Human Rights Writers Association Nigeria, (HURIWA) on Monday urged Nigerians to massively boycott the National Identification Number (NIN) enrollment exercise.
HURIWA made the call in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko.
The group said the Federal Government’s directive for the citizens to link their NIN to their Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards came at the wrong time and a threat to their lives.
It also described the federal government’s refusal to halt the NIN enrollment despite the COVID-19 pandemic as insensitive and irresponsible.
The statement read: “The reason for the people of Nigeria to protest against this policy of government is not that it is a bad policy; but the timing of the implementation of that policy is suicidal.
“That the Nigerian government has remained inconsiderate, irresponsible, insensitive, irresponsible and not being responsive to the agitation of millions of Nigerians that have called on the government to suspend the NIN enrollment exercise until such a time that the second wave of COVID-19 is checkmated, is disappointing.
“Therefore, the last card the people of Nigerians have is to massively protest either symbolically through active civil disobedience methodology or boycotts of the NIN enrollment exercise or physical demonstrations on the streets. We call on all Nigerians including policemen and women to protest.
“The protest does not mean physical protest alone unless they are pushed to their limits then they can come out wearing their face masks, observing physical distancing but anything other than this, the people can also boycott the exercise.
“Yes, the reason they should protest is because the timing of the exercise is a threat to their lives because the second wave of COVID-19 is on a global rampage and people are dying in their thousands in Nigeria and many who have attended that registration exercise have died from COVID-19. HURIWA has learnt of some fatalities related to that dastardly ill-timed exercise.”
The Lagos State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has endorsed Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State as the leader of the party in the South-West.
The Lagos State PDP stated this after a meeting with the governor on Saturday at the Government House, Agodi, Ibadan.
The battle for who is the party’s leader in the zone had set Makinde and former Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose and their supporters against each other in recent times, creating a rift in the party at that level.
Apparently, rejecting Fayose, the Lagos PDP delegation led by its Deputy Chairman, Alhaji Waliu Hassan, pledged members’ loyalty to Makinde as a force to reckon with in the South-West PDP.
Speaking to journalists after the meeting, a former House of Representatives member, Rita Orji, called of Governor Makinde not to relent in his leadership roles while also promising that the Lagos State chapter of the PDP would ensure amicable resolution of conflicts within its fold.
Orji said: “The purpose of today’s meeting is to thank Governor Makinde for standing by the party and to pledge total loyalty to his leadership of the South-West. No more, no less.
“We can tell you that the governor does not want anything from us. He, as the Chief Security Officer of Oyo State, needs nothing from the party. Rather, we are the ones who came all the way from Lagos to plead with him to keep leading the party.
“We resolved to, irrespective of any rancour, move the party forward and we will ensure that the party takes its better seat in 2023. We did not come here to discuss who takes anything for zonal congress. The congress will soon come up and for all we care, we have come to restate our commitment to our own governor.
“It is the full structure of Lagos that is represented here. Out of 19, we have the representation of 12 local government chairmen. We also have 17 complete non-working committee members of state exco here present. We have the deputy chairman of the party here. We have the secretary, legal adviser and the entire party structure of Lagos State here. This is a complete House of PDP, Lagos State.”
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the nomination of Mallam Abubakar Nuhu Fikpo as the acting Director-General of the National Directorate of Employment.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, on Monday, said that Buhari formally conveyed his approval of the nomination to the Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo (SAN).
According to the statement, Fikpo would served in acting capacity “pending the appointment of a substantive Director-General for the Agency.”
Buhari had last month relieved the former DG of the agency of his appointment and directed the minister to nominate an acting DG to superintend over the agency pending the appointment of a substantive DG.
The outgoing President of the United States of America, Donald Trump has been denied a grand spectacle of a US Armed Forces Farewell- a custom dating back to the end of Ronald Reagan’s presidential term in 1989.
Trump wanted a military-style farewell parade as he exits office on Wednesday, to include a massive crowd of his supporters but two senior Defense offices insist that the Pentagon will not participate in any such event.
US defence and national security website Defense One broke the news there will be no grand military spectacle, no 21-gun salute for the 45th president of the US, as his request was rejected by the Pentagon.
“Two senior defence officials confirmed to Defense One on Thursday [January 14] that no military farewell is being planned for the commander in chief,” the website wrote on Sunday.
Further reports say Trump, in a show of bitterness, will also not engage in any hand-off rituals that incumbents typically do to welcome newly elected Presidents – such as leaving a letter of advice to the new president or hosting a one-on-one conversation.
US officials who have engaged in “nasty behaviour” over Chinese-claimed Taiwan will face sanctions, China’s Foreign Ministry said, after Washington lifted curbs on exchanges between US and Taiwanese officials.
Sino-US ties have worsened as China has already condemned this month’s easing, announced by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the waning days of President Donald Trump’s presidency.
Further adding to China’s anger, the US ambassador to the United Nations, Kelly Craft, spoke last week to Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, after a planned trip to Taipei was called off.
Asked at a daily news briefing how China would follow through on its pledge to make the United States “pay a heavy price” for its engagements with Taiwan, ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said some US officials would face sanctions.
“Owing to the wrong actions of the United States, China has decided to impose sanctions on responsible US officials who have engaged in nasty behaviour on the Taiwan issue,” she said, without elaborating.
When asked about US sanctions on six mainland and Hong Kong officials announced last Friday over the mass arrests in Hong Kong, Hua said that China has decided to impose sanctions on US officials, members of Congress, personnel at non-governmental organisations and their family members over their “nasty behaviour” on the Hong Kong issue.
China said last month it would sanction US individuals as a reciprocal response to the US sanctions on more than a dozen Chinese officials. It was unclear from Hua’s reply on Monday whether the Hong Kong-related sanctions were new.
Hua also did not specify the names of the US officials under sanction and the nature of the sanctions.
Democrat Joe Biden will be sworn in as president on Wednesday, and a new team will take over at the State Department, including a new secretary of state.
China says Taiwan is the most important and sensitive issue in its relationship with the United States, and has previously announced sanctions on US companies selling weapons to Taiwan, though it has not been clear how, or if, they were enforced.
Beijing has responded to increased US support for Taiwan, including arms sales and visits by senior US officials, by stepping up military activity near the island, including flying its air force aircraft nearby.
Relations between the United States and China, the world’s two biggest economies, have plunged to their lowest level in decades, with disagreements on issues including Taiwan, Hong Kong, human rights, the coronavirus pandemic, the South China Sea, trade and espionage.
China last year unveiled sanctions on 11 US citizens, including lawmakers from Trump’s Republican Party, in response to Washington’s sanctions on Hong Kong and Chinese officials accused of curtailing political freedom in the former British colony.
As public and private schools resume their academic sessions today, former Kaduna Central senator, Shehu Sani has reacted to the reopening of schools despite the surge of Covid-19 across the country.
Sani made his reaction known via a tweet on his official Twitter handle on Monday.
Sani said state governments should pay more attention in ensuring adherence to COVID-19 measures and not the Federal Government.
He further said the government was confused on how the second wave of COVID-19 should be tackled.
The tweeted read: “Reopening schools and other #COVID19 regulatory measures should be a matter for the states and not the FG; the 36 states, including FCT have different infection rates. There is evident confusion on how to tackle the second wave.”
Ripples Nigeria had reported that the Federal Government had fixed January 18, 2021 as the scheduled day for schools across the country to reopen.
The resumption has caused fear among some Nigerians.
The internet shutdown in Uganda that had entered its fifth day on Monday has ended, with reports suggesting social media is still blocked and only be accessed through VPN.
The Internet was shut down on Wednesday night, a few hours to go before polling stations opened for Thursday’s general elections.
This was shortly after Facebook apparently suspended hundreds of pro-government Ugandan accounts.
President Yoweri Museveni while commenting about Facebook’s decision said there was no way anyone would come to Uganda and decide what was good or bad.
Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, however, told NBS television that government was still assessing the level of threat before a decision can be taken to restore internet services.
President Yoweri Museveni
Meanwhile, offices, where agents were gathering material for an election petition, were raided by military officers, the spokesman for Uganda’s biggest opposition party, National Unity Platform (NUP) has said.
Joel Ssenyonyi told the BBC that the party was in the process of collecting election results forms that show evidence of irregularities in last week’s election.
“Each presidential candidate is provided with the DR [declaration results] form, why doesn’t he want to present the DR forms that were given to us by his electoral commission?”, Ssenyonyi questioned.
The opposition said they had photos and video evidence too.
“Mr Museveni knows we have those things that is why he is shutting down the internet; he doesn’t want us to put those things out there for the whole of Uganda and the international community to realise how much of a fraudster he is,” he said.
President Museveni said the poll could be the “most cheating-free” in the history of the African nation.
The EU, the United Nations and several rights groups have raised concerns. Aside from an African Union mission, no major international group monitored the vote.
Nigeria’s foremost playwright, Professor Wole Soyinka has said the country must learn to nip extremist instigations in the bud.
The Nobel laureate, who stated this on Monday, said the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, did not say anything denigrating to Islam as recently claimed by some Muslim groups.
Kukah has remained in the news following his Christmas message where he noted that there could have been a coup or war in Nigeria if a non-Northerner and non-Muslim president had practised a fraction of President Muhammadu Buhari’s alleged “nepotism”.
Different Muslim groups picked offence with the statement, describing it as an attack on Islam and Muslims.
One of the groups, Muslim Solidarity Forum, called on Kukah to apologise to the Muslim Ummah or leave Sokoto State.
But in his response to the vexed issue, Soyinka said the threat should not be condoned.
He said, “The timing of Rev Father Kukah’s New Year message, and the ensuing offensives could not be more fortuitous, seeing that it comes at a time when a world powerful nation, still reeling from an unprecedented assault on her corporate definition, is now poised to set, at the very least, a symbolic seal on her commitment to the democratic ideal.
“Let no one be in any doubt that some of the most extreme of the violent forces that recently assaulted her governance citadel are sprung from religious and quasi-religious affirmations, a condition that still enables many of them to be brainwashed into accepting literally, and uncritically, indeed as gospel truth, any pronouncement, however outrageous and improbable, that emerges from their leadership.
“As usual, we have not lacked, within our own distanced environment, advocates who, even till recently, claimed to have seen in their vision, the triumph of God’s own anointed in the electoral contest of that same United States.
“In this nation we have learnt the painful way what such inbred loonies are capable of. Thus, extreme care, and historic awareness, should be taken in imputing any act or pronouncement as an attack on faith.
“Again and again, we have warned against succumbing to irrational demands of religionists, yet even the brutal lessons of past surrenders appear to exercise no traction on society’s faculty of cause and effect, especially in that religious propensity for incremental demands. Surrender one inch, they demand a mile!”
He went further to say, “It should not come as a surprise that a section of our Islamic community, not only claims to have found offence in Father Kukah’s New Year address, what is bothersome, even unwholesome, is the embedded threat to storm his ‘Capitol’ and eject him, simply for ‘speaking in tongues’.
“Any pluralistic society must emphatically declare such a response unacceptable. On a personal note, I have studied the transcript as reported in the media and found nothing in it that denigrates Islam.
“The furore over Father Kukah’s statement offers us another instance of that domineering tendency, one whose consequences are guaranteed to spill over into the world of both believers and non-believers, unless checked and firmly contained.
“In this nation of religious opportunism of the most destructive kind especially, fuelled again and again by failure to learn from past experience, we must at least learn to nip extremist instigations in the bud.”
Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State in southwestern Nigeria has ordered herdsmen to vacate all the state’s forest reserves within the next seven days.
The governor in a series of tweet on Monday said the steps are aimed at addressing “the root cause of kidnapping and other nefarious activities detailed and documented in security reports, the press and debriefings from victims of kidnap cases in Ondo State”.
“These unfortunate incidents are traceable to the activities of some bad elements masquerading as herdsmen. These felons have turned our forest reserves into hideouts for keeping victims of kidnapping, negotiating for ransom and carrying out other criminal activities,” the governor tweeted on Monday.
“As the Chief Law and Security Officer of the State, it is my constitutional obligation to do everything lawful to protect the lives and property of all residents of the State. In light of the foregoing, the following orders are hereby issued:
“All Forest Reserves in the State are to be vacated by herdsmen within the next 7 days with effect from today, Monday 18th January 2021.
“Night-grazing is banned with immediate effect because most farm destruction takes place at night.
Akeredolu
“Movement of cattle within cities and highways is prohibited. Under-aged grazing of cattle is outlawed.
“Our resolution to guarantee safety of lives and property within the State shall remain utmost as security agencies have been directed to enforce the ban.
“In its usual magnanimity, our administration will give a grace period of seven days for those who wish to carry on with their cattle-rearing business to register with appropriate authorities.”
The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, has described the report he gave $5 million bribe to the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, as fake news.
The minister was alleged to have bribed Malami and others to facilitate the appointment of a sole administrator for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), a commission under his ministry.
Malami has since denied the claim.
Also responding to the allegation, Akpabio, in an statement at the weekend through his media aide, Anietie Ekong, said:
The attention of the Honourable Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio has been drawn to a piece of fake news which claimed that Senator Akpabio paid $5 million bribe to the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami and others to secure the appointment of a Sole Administrator for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
“The story is a desperate attempt by some unscrupulous bloggers to impugn the integrity of the Honourable Minister of Niger Delta Affairs and the Honourable Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami as the claim is not only spurious but utterly ridiculous.”
Akpabio, said that the allegation emanated from people not happy with the NDDC forensic audit and vowed to drag the matter to court.
The allegation was part of events that have trailed the appointment of Effiong Akwa as NDDC sole administrator.
Since President Muhammadu Buhari announced Akwa, who is from Akwa Ibom, the same state Akpabio hails from, the people of Ijaw ethnic group and people from other Niger Delta states have continued to protest against the appointment.
They argue that the appointment was against the principle of rotation of the NDDC leadership among the nine states of the Niger Delta region.
But Akpabio claimed in the statement that Akwa was appointed NDDC’s administrator as a result of a lawsuit against the NDDC.
The fact is that in a suit number ABJ/CS/617/2020 filed by a Civil Society Organization, Forum for Accountability and Good Governance, at a Federal High Court in Abuja, Justice Ahmed Mohammed had granted an order restraining the Interim Management Committee of the NDDC from performing the functions of the board and accessing the Commission’s offices and files.
The Order clearly listed the Managing Director Professor Kemebradikumo Pondei, Acting Executive Director of Projects Dr Cairo Ojougboh, Mrs Caroline Nagboh and Cecilia Akintomide as those restrained. The Order also asked that ‘the most senior civil servant or administrator in the Commission be appointed’ to take charge of the Commission.
It was based on this order that President Muhammadu Buhari approved the elevation of the Acting Executive Director of Finance and Administration, Mr Effiong Akwa, being the most Senior Administrator to take over the headship of the NDDC as an Interim Administrator pending the completion of the Forensic Audit Exercise, the statement read.
The Uche Okwukwu-led faction of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has asked a Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting in Bwari Abuja to restrain Professor George Obiozor, who was elected to succeed the Nnia Nwodo-led Ohanaeze Ndigbo from parading himself as the President General of the apex Igbo socio-political association.
Obiozor, a former Nigerian Ambassador to the United States, Israel and Cyprus, was on January 10 declared President of the group after an election held at Dan Anyim Stadium in Owerri, the Imo State capital.
However, in a motion on notice number FCT/HC/BIU/M/14/21 brought against him and the Incorporated Trustees of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the applicants sought an order restraining the former envoy and his proxies or any other parading himself pending the determination of the substantive suit.
The suit, which has Chief Uche Okwukwu and Prince Richard Ozuobu as the 1st and 2nd claimants respectively, also has the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo and the Incorporated Trustees of Ohanaeze Ndigbo as 1st and 2nd defendants.
The claimants wants the court to make an order restraining the defendants, its agents and servants from further holding or summoning any meeting whatsoever of Ohanaeze Ndigbo without consultation with the Secretary General as the constitution demands.
They are also asking for an order restraining Professor Obiozor from parading himself as the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.
In their estimation, Obiozor is a product of an illegal election held in Owerri on January 10, 2021.
Similarly, in their originating summons, the Okwukwu faction is asking for the interpretations of articles 10, 11, 14 and 21 of Constitution of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, brought pursuant to Order 2 Rules 1, 3 and 4 of the Federal High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (Civil Procedure) Rules 2018 and Section 6(6B) of the 1999 Constitution.
Nigeria’s leading political economist and Co-convener, National Consultative Forum, Prof. Pat Utomi at the weekend rejected a claim by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration that Nigeria is better today than it met it more than five years ago.
Contrary to Buhari’s standpoint Wednesday, Utomi claimed that Nigeria was not the poverty capital of the world seven years ago, but currently had more people living in extreme poverty than any country worldwide.
He expressed these concerns on Friday during a phone conversation with THISDAY on the rising inflation rate and shrinking debt to revenue ratio, which was as high as 99% in Q1 2020 and 95% in Q3 2020.
Buhari had, in a self-assessment report Wednesday, claimed that Nigeria was better than he met it more than five years ago while hosting the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission, Revd Yakubu Pam.
While the dust raised by the president’s self-assessment report was yet to settle, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released its Consumer Price Index (CPI) with an indication that inflation rate increased to 15.75 per cent (year-on-year) in December 2020 compared to 14.48 per cent in November 2020.
Unlike the last six years, the year-on-year inflation rate was 13.74% in 2010, the year former President Goodluck Jonathan assumed office after the death of his predecessor, President Umaru Yar’Adua.
In 2011, the year-on-year inflation rate was 10.83%; 12.23% in 2012; 8.5% in 2013; 8.05% in 2014 and 9.01% in 2015, the year President Buhari assumed office. But the inflation rose to 15.7% in 2016 and 16.5% in 2017, though dropped to 12.09% in 2018; 11.4% in 2019 and 12.88% in 2020.
Confronted with these stark realities under the Buhari administration, Utomi, founder/CEO, Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL), said: “The truth of the matter is that Nigeria is not in a good shape. Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world today. But it was not seven years ago.”
He, also, said Nigeria “is more divided and tense today than it was seven years ago. Nigeria has been getting progressively worse. Every government has been worse than the one before it. That is the tragedy of Nigeria.”
Amid the worsening socio-economic indices under Buhari’s administration, the political economist warned that national disaster was looming if the country’s political leaders did not change their behaviour in public service.
Concerned about the future of the federation, Utomi said: “I have talked about this several times. National disaster is looming. The fact is that political actors do not understand the meaning of public service any more.”
In concept, the political economist argued that public service “is a place where people make sacrifices to build a greater tomorrow” contrary to the thinking of the present political leaders at virtually all levels.
He lamented that the country’s political actors “always want their rewards on earth and right now even if it destroys tomorrow,” which according to him, was the reason the federation was descending into deteriorating socio-economic and political conditions.
Utomi lamented: “If we look at the scramble to borrow and what it is being committed to, which is not in productive activities, we know tomorrow will be scary and perhaps most uncertain. There is no question about that.”
He, however, admitted that Nigeria could still be rescued out of the woods only if political actors, irrespective of their ethnic nationalities, political leanings and religious bias, could change their behaviour in public service.
To tame the country’s intractable debt crisis, the political economist observed that the policy option that the present government should consider “is to focus any borrowing on intense production concentration.
“When you produce enough to meet that concentration will not only amortize the debt, but also will also provide you more employment and expand the economy. General borrowing can only lead us to more trouble.”
In specific terms, Utomi recommended the need for all political actors across party lines “to change behaviour. There is no point in borrowing when no investor wants to invest in Nigeria because of the behaviour of our political leaders.
“Nigeria is considered an unsafe place to invest in because of the regulatory risks. The investors are more likely to fail in business because of the actions of the government than any market force. We spend so much in infrastructure and no person comes to invest. What is the point?”
Utomi, therefore, argued that the starting point to rescue Nigeria from descent into insolvency “must be the behaviour of political leaders in Nigeria. If they do not change it, we are finished. It does not matter what else we do. One business fails everyday because of the government.
“Most of the money spent on infrastructure is unnecessary. There is private money we can attract and spend on infrastructure. But that private money is scared of Nigeria because it does not know if the next governor will come in, he will continue or discontinue with the project.
“Nigerian political leaders, quote me, are irresponsible. Quote me ten times. They are ruining the future of their children and grandchildren because of unintelligent pursuit of money or reckless pursuit of personal aggrandizement,” he lamented during a short conversation with THISDAY.
SaharaReporters gathered that eight villagers were also killed by the bandits who carted away cows and farm produce.
Bandits in their large numbers on Sunday ambushed operatives of the Nigerian Army at Janbako town in the Maradun Local Government Area of Zamfara State, killing a soldier and injuring two others.
A source said the soldiers were on their way to restore peace at Janboko after the gunmen invaded the community.
SaharaReporters gathered that eight villagers were also killed by the bandits who carted away cows and farm produce.
“Bandits on Sunday attacked my village, Janbako, in Maradun LGA around 3:00pm. They killed eight villagers. So, we informed Army operatives in Talata Mafara…but on their way to our village, they were ambushed by the bandits who killed one soldier and injured two others,” a source said.
Zamfara, like many other states across the North, has witnessed sporadic attacks by bandits and kidnappers that have claimed the lives of many.
For instance, last October, the police in Katsina and Zamfara states said 21 persons, including police officers and members of vigilante groups, were killed by bandits attacks in the states in one week.
The police in separate statements said the attacks occurred in Dandume and Maradun local government areas of Katsina and Zamfara respectively.
The Museum of London said the blimp was an “extraordinary and imaginative idea” and a “response from Londoners”.
The huge inflatable depicts the US president wearing a nappy and clutching a mobile phone.
Following a global tour it will now be conserved by the museum and could go on display in the future.
In a statement, the effigy’s creators said they hoped it would be “a reminder of the politics of resistance that took place during Trump’s time in office”.
The Museum of London’s director, Sharon Ament, said the museum was “not political and does not have any view about the state of politics in the States”, but the balloon had touched on the typical British response of satire.
“We use humour a lot. And we poke fun at politicians. This is a big – literally – example of that,” she said.
Donald Trump is in the final days of his presidency with Joe Biden’s inauguration set to take place on Wednesday.
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
