Delegates Approve Diaspora Voting Rights

Delegates at the ongoing National Conference yesterday voted in favour of Nigerians in the diaspora to exercise their voting rights and participate in elections.

 The Committee on Foreign Policy and Diaspora Matters had said in its report that the provisions of section 13(1) C of the Electoral Act 2096 as amended and sections 77(2) and 117(2) of the Constitution, which provides that only citizens present in Nigeria at the time of registration of voters can register and vote in any elections has disenfranchised millions of Nigerians living abroad.

The committee thus recommended that the Electoral Act be amended to provide for diaspora voting rights so that Nigerians living abroad who are not less than 18 years before an election be allowed to register and vote.

 

It further recommended that proper arrangement should be made before its implementation to ensure that the process is not abused.

 

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Centenary City to Cost N2.4trn

The official developers of the Abuja Centenary City, Eagle Hills, have revealed that the project is expected to gulp the sum of N2.4trn.

The Chief Executive Officer of Eagle Hills, Mr Mohammed Al-Abbar, made the disclosure yesterday at the ground breaking ceremony of the Centenary City, which is to be completed in 10 years.

President Goodluck Jonathan, who performed the ground breaking ceremony, expressed delight that what began as a dream was now becoming reality.

“It will be a city of elegance, unity and hope. We want Nigerians to appreciate our journey of 100 years,” the president said.

Also speaking, the chairman of the Centenary City Plc, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, noted that the city was being designed in a way that ranks it among the big cities. He added that the project will create 69,000 jobs and 250,000 construction jobs.

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INEC Meets Political Parties on Guidelines for 2015 Elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday in Abuja met with the chairmen and secretaries of the 26 registered political parties to harmonise and approve the guidelines for the conduct of election primaries by political parties.

Speaking at the event, the Chairman of INEC Prof. Attahiru Jega, said the meeting was also called to discuss the approved guidelines for political party registration and deregistration and harmonising the draft guideline for political party campaigns ahead of the 2015 elections.

“This meeting is coming at an auspicious time, on the wake of the recently concluded governorship election in Ekiti State,” he said. “I must therefore use this opportunity to congratulate and commend all stakeholders whose positive involvement in the process has resulted in the successful conduct of the election, such that it has been adjudged the best election INEC has so far thus far conducted.”

“From the INEC staff to the young men and women of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and other tertiary institutions, to the security agencies, political parties, civil society organisations and the candidates and host of other stakeholders, every one put in their best and our collective best turned out to be good enough in the state.  That is how it should be and it is a very good lesson for our future elections,” Jega said.

He pledged that the experience of the state election would be improved upon as the commission prepares for the August 17 governorship election in Osun State and the February 2015 general elections.

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No Intention to Demolish Abuja Auto Parts Market – AMMC

The Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC) has assured auto parts sellers in Abuja that it has no plans to demolish their shops in the Apo District of the Federal capital Territory (FCT).

The Head of Public Relations of AMMC, Mrs Grace Zamani, gave the assurance in Abuja while addressing the traders who staged protest yesterday. She said “there is no plan to demolish the present site until you are properly relocated.’’

She added that the land allocated to the traders in Wasa was going through due process.

The spokesman for the traders, Mr Chime Ife, told journalists that they had embarked on the protest due to threats by the Department to Development Control to demolish the market.

He added the traders had applied for another space for the business which was granted but had not been handed over to them.

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Tambuwal's Car Stopped for Search by Soldiers

Soldiers this morning insisted on searching the official car of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, before he could be allowed into an international conference in Kaduna, Metropole has gathered. 

 

Tambuwal drove in his official car with flag and insignia and in a convoy, an eye-witness disclosed.

 

Angered by the treatment of the soldiers, the Speaker reportedly stormed out of the car and trekked into the venue.

According to the source, the incident occurred at Hotel 17, venue of an  International conference on security and development challenges of pastoralism in West and Central Africa organised by the office of the National Security Adviser. The Speaker is scheduled to deliver an address at the conference.

Tambuwal,  who arrived the venue of the gathering at exactly 9.16 am for the 10.00 am opening ceremony, had his convoy stopped by soldiers who insisted they must search his official car before he could be allowed into the venue, the source said.

Despite much entreaties by security details attached to the Speaker, the soldiers refused, with some saying they have orders from above to search the Speaker.

 

The same treament was not given to other VIPs, especially Governors,  who  were allowed access into the hotel without hindrance.

 

The Speaker is the number four in protocol hierarchy in the Federation,  after the President, Vice-President, and the Senate President. 

 

When contacted for his reaction, Tambuwal's spokesman,  Malam Imam Imam, decried the conduct of the soldiers, saying their attitude undermines the institution of the legislature. 

"It is not about the person of the Speaker, but the office he is occupying," he said. "What we expect is for the security agents to show respect for the office of the Number 4 citizen of the country." 

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UNIABUJA VC May be Announced Today

The Governing Council of the University of Abuja might announce the name of the new Vice Chancellor (VC) of the university today.

This indication emerged in Abuja during the weekend after three candidates were finally short-listed for the post of VC of the university, out of over 124 candidates.

Those short-listed after the stakeholders’ meeting, involving the members of the university academic community, include Professors Mr. Umar Danbatta of Bayero University, Kano, Mr. Armstrong Adejo of Benue State University, and Mr. Raheem Lawal from the University of Ilorin.

The current VC of the university, Professor James Adelabu’s tenure ends on June 30, 2014. The university, however, is currently closed over protest by students over an indefinite strike by a faction of the staff union of the institution.   

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Kubwa General Hospital Gets Internship Training Accreditation

The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) has approved Kubwa General Hospital in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to conduct medical internship trainings.

The Registrar of MDCN, Dr. Abdulmumini Ibrahim, disclosed this when officials of the Council visited the Secretary,  FCT Health and Human Services Secretariat, Dr. Demola Onakomaiya, in his office in Abuja recently. He said the accreditation was based on a report by an eight-member visitation team to the hospital on April 9 to assess its staff and facilities.

 
The Registrar added that the hospital has been granted a training quota of 24 house officers and assured the hospital’s management of the council’s continuous support.

In his response, Dr. Onakomaiya, said the approval will improve qualitative healthcare delivery and also improve capacity building for health staff.

He further stated that plans have been concluded to commission a multi-drug resistance laboratory, a standalone pharmacy, an intensive care unit, provision of bed space for admission of psychiatric patients, and an introduction of a wellness clinic at Kubwa General Hospital.

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SURE-P to Pay 6 Months Allowance to 2,000 Youths

The Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) on Sunday has said it would commence the payment of six months allowance arrears it owes 2,000 youths enrolled in the programme as from this week.

 

The Chairman of SURE-P, Gen. Martin-Luther Agwai (rtd), made this known at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja at the weekend, though he did not reveal the amount to be paid to them.

“I want to make it clear to every Nigerian that these young people have not been paid for onward of five months to six months because of lack of fund,” he said. “I want to state it to everybody that nobody has tampered with anybody’s money; the only challenge was the appropriation act.”

SURE-P, he said, was introduced by the Federal Government to reduce youth unemployment and to curb the rural/urban migration by engaging youths in community services.

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As a Generation, Can We 'Rice' to the Occasion?

A lot of people have reduced Ayo Fayose’s victory at the polls on Saturday to the politics of sharing rice to poor Ekiti voters. If that were the case, Fayemi would have at least had a close run because he did share his own rice too, but the results suggest Ayo Fayose, as much as this is difficult for me to write, did maul Governor Kayode Fayemi.

The intimidation of his governor friends and the arrests of his campaign officers on the eve of the elections apart, the Ekiti elections were a step above the usual rigging that have often characterized elections in Nigeria. Fayose had the might of the state behind him in the military; that power was used in harassing and intimidating Governor Fayemi’s supporters to no end, this of course was an unfair reality but it was only an episode in a process that revealed Nigeria to many in ways they probably never saw it or paid much attention to.

Friday 20th June I told a friend pointblank: any president who intends to start a genuine change process in Nigeria must forget about his/her second term or pretend in his/her first term, then get real in the second term. Deviance is our norm, impunity is our law, and absurdities are our way.

Ekiti is not the first elections in Nigeria where candidates had to share food and money to entice voters. This has always been a normal part of our elections. In fact, the smartest politician is the one who spreads the sharing over the period between one election and the next. Our people more often than not see that as their own way of sharing in the national cake. What set Ekiti apart is the mind-boggling fact that an incumbent who had actually performed and was seen to have performed was judged not based on his performance but based on how much he couldn't share directly with the people while in office.

So, as a Nigerian politician, Governor Fayemi goofed on deciding to go with technocrats as his commissioners instead of politicians. Other things being equal, technocrats focus on the job while politics could later be a distraction but politicians focus on politics while getting the job done is the distraction. Governor Fayemi's technocrats did get the job done. That was never enough.

Just a year or so into his tenure, he was already getting the vibes of the anger of those who preferred the Governor focused on ‘stomach infrastructure’ and not enduring physical infrastructure. It was a choice between directly giving the people fish or creating the environment where the people could fish and have sustainable income.

So then, if you were a Fayemi what would you do after losing elections? Get frustrated? This was out of his hands. He was a technocrat focused on getting the job done. He had no political figure in the state who managed the political side of things.

Governor Fashola survived in Lagos despite his reforms because former Governor Tinubu managed the political costs of his tough decisions. Where a Fayemi insisted on re-training and re-testing teachers to improve the standard of the educational system, he had no politician in place to manage the anger that'd naturally rise from such a bold decision. In the end, politics won and Governor Fayemi had to let go of some of his plans. It was too little too late. The people wanted business as usual, the Governor was too much of a by-the-book person.

What do Nigerians want? For all the cries about change, Nigerians do not want the change some of us in our idealistic state think they want. A lot of Nigerians actually prefer the status quo. This is a country where you can get away with virtually any crime. A leader who comes around to make the law count, to bring about costs to disobeying the law is not likely to be a popular leader.

Corruption and lawlessness have been entrenched in our society. What some other climes may see as corruption, we may see it as ordinary stealing. Anyone who intends to go head-to-head with these established unwholesome norms cannot have thoughts of second term in his or her head. Without a doubt, such a person is likely to be appreciated after office than while in office.

We want change but only when we are at the receiving end of the norm. When the norm favours us, we are just okay with the status quo.

Congratulations to Governor-elect Ayo Fayose. He is the man the people of Ekiti want and no one can say they don't deserve him. Didn't someone already say the people deserve the leader they get? As a Nigerian, one can only hope that politics does not continue to get in the way of genuine development. As for our mostly idealistic generation, how do we ‘rice’ up to this challenge? May God help Nigeria.

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Pandemonium on Kubwa Road as Indigenes Protest Demolition of Houses

There was chaos on the Kubwa express road yesterday evening as the original inhabitants of Abuja barricaded the roads in protest of the demolition of their houses around Gwarinpa a few days ago by the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA).

 

The protests caused severe hardship to commuters who were stranded for hours in the gridlock.

 

Attempts by many motorists to make detours and return to the city centre worsened the traffic situation.

 

Cab drivers discharged their passengers midway and sought alternate routes. Meanwhile some private motorist abandoned their cars on the road or parked in Gwarinpa estate and continued the journey on foot.

 

A resident of the area who pleaded anonymity said that the protest was sparked by the death of a baby during the demolition exercise. “The baby was sleeping inside when the house was brought down,” he said. “The mother of the baby then committed suicide by stabbing herself.”

 

This morning, however, normalcy has returned to the route as the roads were free as usual.

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NGO Accuses APC of Being Gender Bias

The Nigerian Women’s Trust Fund has accused the All Progressive Congress (APC) of short-changing a woman candidate in its elections to the National Executive Council.

 

This was contained in a statement yesterday by the organisation. It said it was alarmed by the allegations that despite the best efforts of Hajia Zuwaira Sani Bakori (Kaduna APC) to contest for the position of Deputy National Organizing Secretary at the just concluded national convention, her candidature and election was deliberately frustrated by irregularities.

 

“It is a dangerous precedent that APC is setting where of all the 46 positions on its national executive council only 8 are women and ALL this 8 are holding ‘woman leader’ positions,” the statement said. “It is a shame that one of the few women determined enough to serve and who did not automatically go for a position reserved for women should be treated in this manner.”

 

The NGO therefore call on the party to address the injustice in which the said position is currently mired.

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No One Should Be Living in Poverty- Okonjo-Iweala

The Minister of Finance Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has said that no Nigerian should be living in poverty when the country has enough land to grow its crop and feed its people.

 

She made the remark yesterday in Abuja in Abuja, when the singer, Dapo Oyebanjo, popularly known as D’Banj, paid her a visit in her office at the Federal Ministry of Finance Headquarters. The minister noted that agric was the best way to fight poverty in Nigeria, and indeed Africa.

 

“I think we are using only about 44% of our arable land,” she said. “Even as we are the biggest economy in Africa, we should turn our attention to the larges sector, which is agric.”

 

D’Banj, who is the federal government’s ‘Do Agric, It Pays’ ambassador, was in her office to present to her a petition signed by over two million African youths calling on their governments to invest more in the agric sector. He also presented to her bags of ‘Koko Garri’, his brand of packaged cassava grain.

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FCTA Inaugurates Urban and Regional Planning Tribunal

In its determination to adhere to the Abuja Master Plan, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has inaugurated the Committee on Urban and Regional Tribunal to arbitrate on matters related to the contravention of land between FCT and the developers.

The Minister of the FCT, Senator Bala Muhammed, who inaugurated the committee yesterday in Abuja, noted that the FCT tribunal was first established in 1990 but could not take off as a result of legal constraints.

He added that a committee was reconstituted in 2008 with a new operational framework approved and gazetted by the then Attorney General of the FCT.

Senator Mohammed said that after moving the seat of government from Lagos to Abuja in 1976, the master plan was created to serve as a framework for the development of the city. Despite the successes recorded within this period, he said, the attraction of Abuja as a city of opportunities had created a massive internal migration of Nigerians to the city, hence the need to strictly adhere to the master plan.

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India Replaces US as Largest Importer of Nigeria's crude

India has replaced the United States of America as the largest importer of Nigeria’s crude with China and Malaysia following closely.

 

This was revealed in a statement today by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr Ohi Alegbe.

 

“The US which had traditionally taken the bulk of Nigeria’s crude has in recent months drastically reduced its demand which now stands at about 250,000barrels per day,” the statement said. “India however now purchases some 30 percent of Nigeria’s daily crude production which currently hovers around 2.5million barrels.”

 

The statement also quoted the NNPC’s Coordinator Corporate Planning and Strategy, Dr. Tim Okona, as saying at the World Petroleum Congress in Russia that Nigeria would not ignore any market in its quest to remain competitive in the global oil and gas industry.

 

 

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Boko Haram Plans to bomb Abuja - DSS

The Department of State Security Service (DSS) has revealed that the Boko Haram sect is planning to bomb Abuja in the next few days, using seized fuel tankers.

 

The information, the DSS said, was obtained through intelligence reports. It said the sect would seize petrol tankers at gunpoint and fill it with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and other types of explosives.

 

The Coordinator of the National Information Centre and Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr Mike Omeri, made this known yesterday while addressing newsmen at the agency’s daily briefing. Mr Omeri who was in company of the Deputy Director of the DSS, Marilyn Ogar, said “The Nigerian security services have received an intelligence report that insurgents intend to seize petrol tankers and plant IEDs in the tankers and drive them to crowded places in Abuja.

”

He therefore called on the Petrol Tankers Association to be on the red alert and advise their members to report any attempt or seizure of their vehicles to security agencies. He also advised Nigerians to report any broken-down tanker in any part of the territory to security agencies or when they see any tanker driving dangerously.

 

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25 Countries to Attend Fashion Summit in Abuja

At least 25 countries are expected to participate in the African fashion summit scheduled to take place in Abuja first week of July.

 

The Minister of Information, Mr Minister Labaran Maku, made this known yesterday in Abuja while briefing journalists on the outcome of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.

He said that the council received a report from the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation to host a summit on a world fashion industry on 2 – 5 July.

Similarly, the Minister of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation, High Chief Edem Duke, said the World Fashion Organisation chose to hold the summit in Abuja after considering Nigeria the best out of five countries that bided for the hosting.

Duke, who said Nigerian fashion designers had made impact globally, said 25 countries had confirmed their participation in the summit which, he added, would also be attended by 30 fashion journalists from 17 countries as well as judges from Canada, Italy and South Africa.

He further stated that in addition to hosting the summit, Nigeria has been earmarked as the country to host the first fashion university and a garment industry.

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