President Muhammadu Buhari has received the 2022 Appropriation Bill from the National Assembly for consideration less than one week that the two chambers passed the bill for presidential assent.
Both Houses had delayed going on recess for the Christmas break to hasten consideration and passage.
While the House of Representatives passed its version of the budget on Tuesday last week before going on recess, the Red Chamber did extend its sitting to Wednesday before finally giving nod and proceeding on recess.
The chambers however raised the estimates as sent in by the president from N16.391 trillion to N17.126 trillion, also raising the oil benchmark from $57 per barrel to $62.
In an official communication signed by the Clerk to the National Assembly, Mr Ojo Amos, to the President, notifying him of the development with Reference Number NASS/CNA/37/Vol.1/35, and titled ‘APPROPRIATION BILL, 2022,’ Amos wrote: “In consonance with the Provisions of the Acts Authentication Act Cap. A2, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, I wish, with due respect, to forward to Your Excellency, the authenticated copies of Appropriation Bill, 2022, for your consideration and assent.”
The letter further read: “After Your Excellency’s assent, one copy of the signed bill should be retained in your office while the other two are to be returned for our further action, please.”
The budget will follow a return to the usual budget cycle suspended some years ago by the current administration following confusion in implementation, blames 9n recessions and factors the administration cited as unavoidable.
The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), has given reasons President Muhammadu Buhari won’t assent to the Electoral Amendment Bill.
Malami explained that the bill did not capture the interest of Nigerians, hence Buhari will not sign it into law.
The AGF, featuring on Radio Kano, noted that the proposed bill has excessive cost implication, supports insecurity, and is discriminatory.
He said: “This means that you will repeat the general elections 18 times. Today INEC requires N305 billion for the 2023 general elections. Now if the general election, which is not the newly proposed electoral system, will cost this much, how much will it cost to do the same election in the APC? It might cost at least N200 billion because it will involve everyone.
“Although the good side of the law is that INEC is required to monitor it.
“Therefore, if it is assumed that every political party will spend N200 billion, how much will then be spent in conducting the same primary election in 18 political parties just to produce a qualified candidate? Let’s assume there are about 60 million politicians in the country, what about the remaining over 160 million Nigerians who have nothing to do with politics? Are you fair to them?
“All the people want are good projects, good road from Abuja to Kano, portable drinking water, good education, school feeding program and the rest of them. Are you fair to the 160 million Nigerians using their wealth just to conduct primary election to produce a party candidate, despite other demands by the public?
“My answer to this is that, to spend this N305 billion that will be given to the INEC and the about N200 billion to be given to the political parties is not fair to the remaining 160 million Nigerians who have no business about politics and political appointments. Their business is just a better life in Nigeria. This is the issue of cost implications.”
Renowned Nigerian journalist and publisher, Dele Momodu has made comments about joining the 2023 presidential race.
Naija News recalls that the former Presidential candidate in October 2021 officially joined the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
The media mogul in a statement also made available to this news platform stated that he joined the PDP to contribute his quota to the growth and development of the nation.
Momodu stressed that he joined the PDP in order to help the party win the 2023 presidential election and sweep away the bad policies and practices of the All Progressive Congress (APC) government led by President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a post on his verified Facebook page on Tuesday morning, Momodu revealed how he was stunned some weeks ago when a former speaker of the house of representatives and serving Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal referenced him as MR President.
He disclosed further that some bigwigs in the ruling APC on Monday in Lagos chorused his name as Mr President.
Momodu explained how happy he was to receive such a remark even when he has yet declared his interest in contesting for the 2023 Presidency.
He wrote: “I was truly stunned when GOVERNOR AMINU WAZIRI TAMBUWAL exclaimed MR PRESIDENT when he saw me in Port Harcourt about two weeks ago.
“Yesterday in Lagos, some APC leaders also chorused the same song, even when I’m yet to make such a declaration.
“One of them said 2023 makes 1993 exactly 30 years and June 12 might reincarnate with a candidate loved across party lines like Abiola!” Truly humbled.”
The head of the Directorate of State of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Chika Edoziem, will address IPOB members on the group’s 2022 line of actions on Jan 1, 2022.
The address will be anchored via Radio Biafra from 7pm on Saturday, January 1, 2022, our correspondent gathered.
Emma Powerful, head of media of IPOB, in a statement seen by THE WHISTLER, said Edoziem would speak on issues pertaining to the struggles for the sovereign Biafra nation.
According to the statement, “Edoziem will highlight the achievements IPOB has recorded this year, and hint on the roadmaps to our liberation. He will also address some pertinent issues pertaining to our struggles for independence.
“IPOB has gone beyond human destruction, and it will remain so till Biafra freedom is fully achieved.
“Anybody can say whatever they like, IPOB remains unshakable. There is no retreat until Biafra sovereignty is fully restored.
“The broadcast will be simultaneously relayed live through our many channels, including IPOB community radio, radio Biafra FM, Facebook, satellite and others.”
Powerful urged IPOB faithful to hook on to the broadcast.
He said, “We also wish to inform Biafrans that Mazi Chinasa Nworu, and his crew will also be on radio Biafra for questions and answer on 30th of December.
“Call in during the live programme for your questions on anything bordering on our independence struggle.”
Pastor Tunde Bakare Faces Humiliation as Wema Bank Moves to Recover N9 Billion Used For Building Church
• Loan Taken to Build New Multi-Billion Church • How COVID-19 Messed up Repayment Plan
If the feelers coming from the headquarters of Wema Bank are something to be accorded some seriousness, 2022 may start on very interesting note for Pastor Tunde Bakare, the Senior Pastor of the Citadel Global Community Church (formerly known as the Latter Rain Assembly). With a renewed resolve of the management of the bank to retrieve all huge loans taken by debtors who have not been servicing their loans, the very voluble pastor may be in for interesting times, as the loan taken to build his new church has risen to about nine billion Naira (N9 billion).
According to information pieced together, the likelihood of Wema Bank’s axe falling on Bakare is high, and when it falls, it is going to cut so deep that even he would question where he went wrong.
It is being reported that in building his new church headquarters, the multi-billion naira Citadel Global Community Church edifice in Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos, Pastor Bakare exploited his relationship with Wema Bank to secure a N4.5billion loan. The thinking, according to sources close to the pastor is that the bigger the church became, the more populous and prosperous it would become.
However, neither Bakare nor any of Nigeria’s prominent pastors foresaw COVID-19, which altered how humanity related and worshipped God. As the world went into lockdown, with many public places and worship centres shut, many churches had to take their services online. Even though offerings were accepted online, the revenue was nowhere near when the church was in full swing.
Pastor Bakare’s projections did not materialise and now, the loan has reportedly risen to N9billion with interests. Sources close to the bank said overtures have been made to Bakare. The bank is currently weighing its options.
Until recently, Pastor Bakare maintained a good relationship with the first-generation bank. He was an ever-present figure at almost all the bank’s functions. When the bank celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2015, the lawyer turned fiery clergy was there. He also had a very robust relationship with the bank’s former MD/CEO, Segun Oloketuyi.
In 2016, Pastor Bakare was represented at the launch of a foundation to celebrate the 52nd birthday of the 2nd Vice President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Monday Onyekachi Ubani, by Oloketuyi. Oloketuyi has since left office.
But wait a minute, Nigeria may be broke. The country may be truly bankrupt. If that is the case, then the country may be flailing right at the edge of the deadly precipice, where prodigal clans careen and plunge down the steep plains of lavishness and sick delight.
The facts are mean and the statistics loom grotesquely like tragic integers of an economy in the chokehold of penury and devastation.
Worse hit is the financial sector in the catalogue of ruin that pervades the polity even as you read.
Prime culprits responsible for the depression stealthily stealing upon the country are the self-styled mavericks running the Nigerian financial sector amok. They are none other but the banking industry’s cowboys or rogue entrepreneurs if you like. These characters comprise executives of top banks in the nation’s financial sectors and they are to blame for the rot and spiraling misfortunes of the sector. While Nigeria depends on them to shrewdly manage and maneuver the economy from a state of uncertainty to a state of prosperity or future affluence, these characters conspired to effect the devastation of the banking industry.
And how did they do that? By granting outrageous loans without collateral and other mandatory securities to themselves, their principals and glorified tin gods among their clients. Rather than re-energise the banking system by imbuing it with the kind of visionary, dynamic and audacious initiatives reminiscent of the best the sector has to offer, these bank executives imposed on the country, a dark pall of financial doom and controversies via their inclinations for and brazen perpetration of cutthroat practices.
Many of them, bank Managing Directors (MDs) or Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) to be precise, sheepishly and maniacally played stooge cum dimwits to plundering boards of directors, chairmen of boards of their institutions, political tin gods and the current generation of aggressive entrepreneurs identified as young Turks of the nation’s oil and gas sectors. While serving as unquestioning muscles to their various principals and clients, these self-seeking MDs/CEOs, deviously sought for themselves large chunks of the loot they pillaged from the coffers of their banking institutions. It never mattered to them that they were playing with other people’s money, poor, helpless customers to be precise, they simply lusted and groveled for the good life.
There is no gainsaying these incumbent CEOs or MDs sheepishly kowtowed and still kowtow to the excessive demands of their principals and deified clients outside the walls of their banking institutions, what thus become shadow representatives of their will and demands. Shame!
Foremost historian and leader of the umbrella body of Yoruba self-determination groups, Ilana Omo Oodua, Professor Banji Akintoye, on Monday, unveiled a modern mobile application designed to track kidnap victims and expose danger anywhere in the South West.
The mobile application and alert system, named Pajawiri, can also expose criminal elements wherever they are with their victims once the victims have the application installed in their phones either on or off.
The security system also has another system called Afinihan that can be used by those without android phones to link up with those with the full application.
Speaking at the unveiling ceremony held in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, Akintoye, who joined the event virtually, said the emergence of Pajawiri is an evidence that the Yoruba people are too intellectually sophisticated to be subdued.
He stated: “We have now proven to the world that we cannot be captured nor be subdued. We are too intellectually sophisticated to be subdued. It is these innovations and intellectual powers that we will deploy to get ourselves out of the quagmires of Nigeria.”
On the attendant benefits of Pajawiri, Akintoye, in a statement by his communications manager, Mr. Maxwell Adeleye, said “every person in possession of the Pajawiri app on their telephone, will be able to activate the application instantly, whenever they find themselves in danger. By activating the app, they will be able to alert their families, their friends, and their neighbours that they are in danger and that they need help.
“In that way, no Yoruba person needs to be alone anywhere on their farms, schools, market places, shops, and anywhere else. Any person who finds himself threatened by danger and who is in possession of Pajawiri will be able to alert other persons for help.
“In short, Yoruba people today, are able now to enjoy security individually and collectively through the use of the app known as Pajawiri.
“The Ilana Omo Oodua Worldwide owes our engineers who have “put this together with an enormous debt of gratitude. The Yoruba people also owe a lot of gratitude to the umbrella body of Yoruba Self-determination groups, “Ilana Omo Oduduwa” for all the encouragement and support that they have given to these engineers.
“The creators of this application have magnanimously offered to put this app Pajawiri freely at the disposal of every Yoruba person for the next thirty days. That is, from now till the 21st of January, 2022. This means that all Yoruba people can have the protection of Pajawiri without paying any fees for the next thirty days.
“After that, those who choose to continue to enjoy the protection of Pajawiri will be able to do so with an affordable monthly subscription. That is for those of us who have smartphones (android, iOS, or iPhone). For those of us who do not have smartphones (android, iOS or iPhone), there has been a designed hand-held alert device named Afinihan to work equally as effectively as the Pajawiri on the iPhone.
“AFINIHAN, a tiny hand-held device that is able to perform wonders. This tiny device has been efficiently tested and will be available for purchase at a small affordable price. The purpose of these technological provisions is that the Yoruba nation must carry all its people along in this provision of security,” Akintoye remarked.
Commenting on the ideal features and benefits of the application, the coordinator of the Pajawiri project, Engineer Ayobami Abolaji, explained that the Pàjáwìrì app is a system for warning and protection through an alarm and alert system that will generate protective action for the community and each individual user.
The United States-based IT expert said “The Pàjáwìrì app is designed to provide a technological solution or a system that allows people to warn others of impending dangers and arouse established response
teams in the communities to stop and prevent various vices such as kidnapping, rape, armed robbery, arson, theft, accidents, murders, and banditry against app users and their community members.
“The Pàjáwìrì app is a technologically savvy information and communication application that alerts and locates the source and flashpoints of dangerous security breaches where an unchallenged massacre of valuable human lives and properties are perpetrated. The Pàjáwìrì app proffers a modern-day means of curbing or permanently alleviating the fears that have gripped the inhabitants of any geographical location and settlements once and for all.
“The Pàjáwìrì app was designed to be activated through a referral process only, in order to be able to know the identities of the app users and detect suspicious and criminal elements disguising as real users. It will be free to download by any user and will be operational after the referral is activated for the new user to have the referral identification.
Present at the unveiling of the app were Pioneer Commissioner for Education in Osun-State and Immediate Past Chairman of Ilana Omo Oodua, Professor Wale Adeniran, immediate past General Secretary of Ilana Omo Oodua Worldwide, Mr George Akinola, dons, Kayode Akinwande, Akinsola Adejuwon, amongst others.
Thugs on Monday attacked and destroyed properties including vehicles at the venue of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Congress in Zamfara State.
Some of the other materials destroyed by the thugs include voting materials, nomination forms, and chairs. Canopies at the venue were also set ablaze.
Naija News understands the congress was eventually shifted from Zaitun Oil mill, behind State Pilgrim Board to the Command Guest House in Gusau, the state capital.
Reacting to the attack, the Personal Secretary to Deputy Governor of Zamfara State, Umar Aminu was quoted by Channels Television to have said the PDP won’t be intimidated by the happening.
Some of the PDP stalwarts present at the congress include the Zamfara Deputy Governor, Barrister Mahdi Aliyu Gusau, and the Caretaker Chairman of the party, Ambassador Bala Mande.
Over one thousand delegates are attending the congress expected to produce the next set of officials to lead the PDP in Zamfara State.
Below are some pictures from the scene of the attack.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s ruling party, the All Progressive Congress, APC, may witness a major crisis early next year should it fail to conduct its National Convention as recently rescheduled, Naija News reports.
This is as a faction of the party is sending warnings to Governor Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) over the delayed party convention.
It could be recalled that the ruling party announced weeks ago that its convention will hold February 5, 2022.
In its statement earlier, the convention committee attributed the yuletide period and factional party crisis to why it couldn’t hold its National Convention this year.
Ugwumba Uche Nwosu, Senator Rochas Okorocha’s son-in-law, who was arrested by security agencies has been released unconditionally.
It was reported how the 2019 governorship candidate of Action Alliance (AA) was arrested during the outing service of his mother’s burial at St Peter’s Anglican Church Umunwokwe Village Eziama-Obaire Nkwerre LGA of Imo State.
The security operatives whisked him away amidst sporadic shooting.
It, however, gathered that he did not spend a night in police custody.
According to a release signed by Nwadike Chikezie, Special Adviser Media to Ugwumba Uche Nwosu, “I have spoken with him and he extended his greetings to all of us out there.
“While we await police report on why the abduction and arrest, we call on everyone to remain calm and focused because God is in charge of the whole situation.”
“The act of desecrating the House of God we all know a direct affront and challenge to God Almighty. We leave God to do his fight because vengeance is of God but to all Christians, does it now mean that the Government has no more respect for God and does it now mean that the House of God is no more a place one can take refuge? God prove your answers ”
As uncertainty continues over the National Convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress, a group within the party has called on the party’s Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee under the leadership of Yobe State governor, Mai Mala Buni, not to exceed the next February date fixed for the election.
The national convention was fixed to enable members elect its national officers after more than one year of being run under the caretaker Committee.
The Committee was created after the exit of Mr Adams Oshiomhole, after a protracted struggle for control of the party.
There’s also been confusion over the zoning arrangement in the party even as more than a dozen aspirants are queuing to contest for the position of the national chairman.
Insinuation has been rife that it has been zoned to the north central to counter the opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP, but the party has not come out to categorically say which way.
This, plus what’s now been called a slip off from Kebbi State governor, Mr Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, who also doubles as Chairman of Progressives Governors Forum of the APC, when he said last November that the national convention would hold next February.
The Governor revealed February as the date after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, without sounding specific.
While there have been calls for actual date to be fixed, the committee has not done that.
Few days ago, after a meeting of the APC CECPC, its National Secretary, Mr John James Akpanudoedehe informed journalists that that the interim leadership would “soon unveil subcommittees ahead of the next February Convention,” without mentioning actual date.
With February less than two months away and with primary elections less than 10 months away, fresh anxiety has risen that the ruling party has failed to nail its preparation for the election starting from having a legally constituted National Working Committee, NWC.
Reacting to this development over the weekend, the Progressive Mandate Movement, PMM, in statement issued by Mr Abdullahi Mohammed and Comrade Adekunle Fijabi, the National Coordinator and Secretary of the PMM, respectively, demanded immediate release of dates and other processes leading to the national convention.
The group warned that it was ready to launch the #OccupyAPCNationalSecretariat, if the convention to elect a new set of national officers was not convened by February 5, 2022.
“For some of our current leaders who were there during the merger process that led to the formation of APC, this organisation has always been in the forefront of upholding the progressive ideology of our party and we will not stop at this critical period,” they said in the statement.
According to them, “The delay in conducting the overdue APC national convention is already giving the opposition Peoples Democratic Party some advantages, making it look like nobody is in charge of the governing party.
“We, therefore, call on Governor Mai Mala Buni-led National Caretaker Committee not to go beyond February 5 to hold our party’s National Convention.
“This group is in possession of the instructions given to the Caretaker Committee by the Presidency and we appeal to the CECPC to respect our leader and President Muhammadu Buhari by releasing to the public all the necessary information concerning the forthcoming National Convention.
“We also warn that if nothing is made public before January 5, 2022, we shall launch an aggressive operation #OCCUPYAPCNATIONALSECRETARIAT to force our leaders to do the right thing.
“We make bold to say that we do not have another party and we will not allow our leaders to make mistakes that will eventually cause us to lose elections in 2023.”
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) police command have arrested four people and impounded 21 cars over illegal car races on Sunday.
The action followed the full enforcement of Regulation 228 of the Road Traffic Act which prohibits illegal car races and other related offences by the FCT Commissioner of Police, Babaji Sunday.
The FCT police spokesperson, DSP Josephine Adeh, confirmed the arrest and the number of cars impounded.
She said the suspects were arrested around Muhammadu Buhari way, by Nicon Insurance where they converged for business as usual.
The command had earlier ordered full enforcement of the prohibition of all kinds of car and speed races in the capital territory.
The commissioner had directed all the Divisional Police Officers and their supervisory Area Commanders to ensure full enforcement of the regulation in their respective area of responsibilities.
The order followed public outcry on the menace of reckless driving which poses risk to life and damage to personal property as well as critical national infrastructure.
