‘I Can Be Friends With Isa Pantami, it’s Called Politics Without Bitterness’ – Fani-Kayode Replies Nigerians
Former Aviation Minister Femi Fani-Kayode has replied Nigerians who criticised him for describing the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, as his brother and friend.
Society gazette reports that the former minister was pictured smiling with Pantami at the wedding ceremony of Yusuf, President Muhammadu Buhari’s son, and his bride Zahra in Kano.
Joining a host of others at the affluent ceremony, Fani-Kayode while giving an update about his trip to Kano alongside top politicians, described Pantami as his brother.
It could be recalled that FFK a few months ago went hard on Pantami, describing him as a sociopath among many unprintable names.
Fani-Kayode in April this year lampooned Pantami after the Communication’s Minister came under fire over his past controversial comments supporting Islamic terrorist group known as the Taliban.
FFK who is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, labelled the communication minister with ‘humiliating’ terms for his extremist Salafist views and sympathy for the Taliban, currently on the rampage in Afghanistan.
Nigerians, surprised to see Fani-Kayode with Pantami and other APC politicians, slammed the former Minister.
Some Nigerians accused the minister of lacking honour for dining with someone he described as a “unrepentant jihadist, cold blooded beast, a psychopathic and clearly insane individual”
Reacting, Fani-Kayode stated that he can disagree with his friend, stressing that politics is about bridge-building.
He wrote, “Buba Galadima with Ahmad Lawan, GEJ with PMB, GEJ with VP & Atiku with PMB. Politics is about bridge-building regardless of your differences.
“It is not war. You can be friends with your political adversary & still disagree. It’s called politics without bitterness & being civilised.”
Nigeria Now Cow Republic’ – Ortom Reacts To Buhari Government Grazing Reserves Order
The Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom says President Muhammadu Buhari-led government’s insistence on carving out grazing routes and reserves for herdsmen across 25 states despite resistance by Nigerians is a final onslaught on the people and an invitation to crisis and anarchy.
Society gazette reports that Ortom asked in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary Terver Akase in Makurdi, “What is the difference between the Buhari administration’s approach to insecurity and the Taliban agenda in Afghanistan?”
The President had on Thursday, August 19, approved recommendations of a committee to review “with dispatch” 368 grazing sites across 25 states in the country, “to determine the levels of encroachment.”
The Governor said it was shocking and disappointing to read this statement from the Presidency, stating that it was clear that the Presidency wanted to plunge the country into avoidable crisis.
This, according to him, is because there was no justification for Buhari to insist on establishing reserves and routes for cattle against the widely accepted ranching policy.
Ortom, in the statement, said, “millions of Nigerians have been displaced following attacks by armed herders and are currently suffering in IDP camps. Benue State for instance has over 1.5 million displaced people with thousands living in camps and many more forced to flee their ancestral lands to stay under dehumanizing conditions in open fields.
“The Buhari administration does not seem to be worried about the food crisis already ravaging the country. Farmers have been chased into IDP camps by herders and children are dying of starvation in addition to being denied education, yet what is more important to the President is the wellbeing of cows.
“We expected the pitiable condition of the displaced people to be the preoccupation of the President whom they voted in 2015 and 2019. It is unfortunate that the people’s genuine show of love, trust and votes for the President are being rewarded with hate, cruelty and dictatorial policies aimed at grabbing their lands to donate to herders and cows.”
The Benue governor maintained that it was now evident that Buhari prioritizes the welfare of cattle over human beings and is bent on taking Nigeria back to the precolonial era with some snippets of a society where in the words of Thomas Hobbes, life has become ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’.
He lamented that the country has been turned to a cow republic by the Buhari administration where basic principles of equality, justice, fairness and equity which engender peace and suppress anarchy are now non-existent.
Ortom said, “President Buhari has refused to prove wrong, those who accuse him of being a Fulani President. He has instead proven that he indeed belongs to somebody. But Buhari is not the first Fulani man to be President of this country.
“Nigeria had Presidents Shehu Shagari and Umaru Yar’Adua who were also of Fulani ethnicity; but were Presidents for all Nigerians and treated citizens of this country fairly and equitably.
“Our country has never been more divided on ethnic lines and sentiments as it is under President Buhari who was thought to be the most prepared to lead the country at this time. Under President Shagari and President Yar’Adua, Nigerians were not chided by a horde of presidential spokesmen and social media hirelings for simply expressing their views on government policies.”
Dwindling revenue: Buhari government Resort To borrow N5.2trillion
From Monday to Thursday, the House of Representatives Committee on Finance had an interactive session with revenue-generating agencies on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF).
President Muhammadu Buhari had forwarded the 2022-2024 MTEF to the National Assembly for approval. However, what is alarming is that the government is proposing a deficit of N5.2trillion, which will be financed through borrowing.
The MTEF is a rolling plan of three years, which contains macroeconomics projections for the three years under review. The MTEF projection is crude oil benchmark price of $57 per barrel for 2022, crude oil production of 1.88 million barrels per day, and a dollar exchange rate of N410.15 to one US dollar.
At the public hearing, the Chairman of the Committee, James Faleke, appeared to be on the quest to search for money to reduce the proposed deficit and cut the borrowing down.
On Thursday, while speaking to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), he warned that the committee will cut any capital projects by any agency to free more revenue for the government.
Most revenue-generating agencies increase their capital expenditure to reduce their operating surplus which they are supposed to remit to the government.
“The major problem we have is revenue. The MTEF we have now is to borrow N5.2trillion. If we discover that any of your capital projects is not necessary, we will push it to revenue,” Faleke had said.
Agencies like the NPA, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and others have been asked to increase their revenue collection, while the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) Chairman, Mohammed Nami, told the committee that social media companies like Twitter, Facebook and others will be included in the tax bracket and also planned to introduce road tax.
As revenue continues to dwindled and expenditure continues to rise, Buhari administration continues to resort to borrowing, which is increasing the debt profile of the state and increasing money spent on debt servicing.
For the ongoing 2021 budget, according to the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, N5.81trillion has been released so far for the 2021 budget, but N2.02trillion was to service debt.
In the proposed 2022 budget estimate of N13.09trillion expenditure, N3.60trillion will go into debt servicing, while the government will be borrowing another N5.22 trillion.
Borrowing 800 billion to fund supplementary budget
In July, the National Assembly passed the supplementary budget, however, out of the N982.7billion approved, the government is planning to borrow N802.1 billion from the Nigerian financial market.
The implication is that the government will be borrowing 80% of the said supplementary budget.
Buhari’s borrowing
As of June 2015 when President Buhari came in, the debt profile of Nigeria, according to the Debt Management Office, was N12.18trillion (Federal, states and FCT)
As of March 31st, the DMO pegged the borrowing at N33.1 trillion. The federal government alone has about N26 trillion of the profile of the entire loan.
This was before the country embarked on the N802.2 billion supplementary budget borrowing.
It would be recalled that in July, the National Assembly approved the borrowing of $6.1 billion loan request by the administration.
Lekan Olaleye, an Economist who spoke with DAILY POST, said the problem is not the debt, but the poor revenue generation and expenditure that has been increasing exponentially.
“Borrowing can help to bridge the gap in infrastructure as the government is claiming, of course, that is true. What is the economic viability of the projects? Can they refund the loans? Will future generations partake in the project. The point is, loans are like a future burden, it will be shifted to generation unborn. If you are giving them a liability, are you bequeathing assets?
“On the revenue aspect, the government’s revenue is struggling to keep up with the expenditure. In the 2022 MTEF, which is a rolling plan, the government is proposing N6.2trillion as recurrent expenditure and N3.60 as debt servicing. Mind you, there is a deficit of over N5 trillion. The implication is that the government is only projecting to generate about N8 trillion for the 2022 fiscal year. In fact, projected revenue is about an estimate, which the government may end up not meeting.
“If you look at the parameters in the MTEF, the oil benchmark is $57 per barrel. The government cannot control the price of oil, it could crash at any point in time. COVID-19 is on the rise, what happens in case of another lockdown? Will FIRS be able to meet up with its target?”
Despite the alarming rate of the increase in the debt profile, the National Assembly continues to approve the loans request of the government.
Also, the government is yet to implement the Steve Oransanye’s report despite promising to implement the report which will help to reduce the cost of governance.
Afenifere Fumes, Knocks Buhari Over Fresh Order On Grazing Reserves
The Afenifere group, a pan Yoruba socio-political group has angrily told President Muhammadu Buhari to shelve the idea of reviving 368 grazing reserves in 25 states of the federation.
The group said the move by the Buhari government is simply a plan to waste taxpayers money on a project that the citizens had clearly rejected.
It also accused the President and his team of trying to forcefully take lands from states to implement an archaic Fulani agenda.
Naija News reports the group was reacting to President Buhari’s order on Thursday, August 19 which approved recommendations of a committee to review “with dispatch,” 368 grazing sites, across 25 states in the country, “to determine the levels of encroachment.”
The committee is headed by his Chief of Staff, Professor Ibrahim Gambari.
However, Afenifere in a reaction on Friday which was contained in a statement by its Secretary-General, Chief Sola Ebiseni described the president’s move as “a sweet pipe dream in a fool’s paradise”.
It added that non-Fulani Nigerians are wise enough to read in-between the lines and see that the order is a move to dispossess them of their ancestral lands and force what they don’t want on them.
Rather than follow through with the plans, Afenifere advised the government of President Buhari to look for other ways to end the frequent clashes between herders and farmers rather than support an ethnic agenda over other ethnic groups in the country.
The statement reads: “The approval by President Muhammadu Buhari to review, with dispatch, 368 Grazing Reserves across allegedly 25 states in the country to determine the levels of encroachment did not surprise Nigerians.
“It does not also matter that having felt the pulse of the nation in his interview with the Arise television in June, the President is still wasting taxpayers scarce resources on a programme whose conception lacks all conceivable growth capacity.
“It is instructive that the recommendation and implementation committee is headed by Professor Ibrahim Gambari, the Chief of Staff to the President who, in conjunction with Professor Attahiru Jega, during the first term of Buhari, presented a “Memorandum On Pastoralist-Farmers’ Conflicts And the search for peaceful Resolution” published in January 2018, which contained the same recommendations now being foisted on the nation.
“They have submitted, among other recommendations that “it is clear that Nigeria and indeed Africa have to plan towards the transformation of pastoralism into settled forms of animal husbandry.”
“The establishment of grazing reserves provides the opportunity for practising a more limited form of pastoralism and is, therefore, a pathway towards a more settled form of animal husbandry. Grazing reserves are areas of land demarcated, set aside and reserved for exclusive or semi-exclusive use by pastoralists”
Afenifere observed that the fresh move is worse than RUGA and other previous ideas of the current government which the southern people and their governors have clearly rejected.
“Currently, Nigeria has a total of 417 grazing reserves all over the country, out of which only about 113 have been gazetted. Thus, the present policy of the Buhari administration on Grazing Reserves is the implementation of the script by the Fulani intelligentsia.
“The recommendations which pandered to deceptive national solutions to orchestrated farmers/herders clash, nonetheless reek of the odiferous stench of ethnic agenda for settlement of the Fulani in the ancestral lands of other ethnic nationalities.
“The non-Fulani Nigerians are not stupid, as the Federal Government, probably imagine, not to know that the concept of Grazing Reserve, by the Gambari and Jega definitions above, is a worse form of official dispossession of their ancestral lands for the inheritance and use of the Fulani than Cattle Colony, RUGA and Grazing Routes which they have roundly rejected.
“We recall and support the resolutions of the Nigerian Governors, particularly from the south of the country, banning all forms of open grazing and it does not matter to us that some elected governors, in a federation, would condescend so low to function as members of a Committee presided over by an appointed aide of the President, no matter the name in which his office is painted.
“The concept of Grazing Reserves, otherwise known as Hurumi, which was introduced during the colonial and immediately after independence failed in the north particularly in the Middle Belt provinces, notwithstanding a monolithic one North government and permissive land-use regime.
“For the umpteenth time, let the President be told that the constitution which he reveres relentlessly and the Land Use Act which derives equal force therefrom, extols the majesty of the people over their land.
“Even the Governor who holds the land in his state in trust for the people cannot dispossess any citizen thereof, except for proven overriding public interest through the due process of law.
“The current exercise is not only a waste of taxpayers money but also a sweet pipe dream in a fool’s paradise. Every herder has a state of origin. Let the governments of the respective states make arrangements for settled life for them in the territory where the culture is fully appreciated,” the statement added.
BREAKING: IGP Takes Over Murder Case Of Super TV CEO From Lagos Police
The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, has ordered the transfer of the case of the murdered Super TV Chief Executive Officer, Usifo Ataga, from Lagos to Abuja.
SaharaReporters learnt that the IGP ordered that the case be taken up by the Force Criminal Investigation Department, while the murder prime suspect, 21-year-old Chidinma Ojukwu, would also be brought to Abuja.
“IGP has approved the transfer of Usifo Ataga’s murder case to Abuja. It will be handled by the FCID,” a top source told SaharaReporters.
SaharaReporters had on Wednesday reported that the family alleged that the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, might be shielding the killers of their son, with the police’s suspicious handling of the matter.
They had claimed that Chidinma, the prime suspect in Ataga’s murder, was arraigned in a Yaba Magistrate Court without the family being informed.
The family of the murdered Super TV CEO had last Sunday hired human rights’ lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, SAN, to ensure that justice was served for their slain son.
Ataga’s family in a letter to Ozekhome also accused the police of stifling efforts to ensure those behind the Super TV CEO murder were brought to book.
The family, in the letter, accused the Lagos CP of “attempting to protect the killers of Ataga.”
The Usifo family also decried the alleged comfortable movement of Chidinma from prison to court and from court back to the prison.
The family said Chidinma was moved in an Uber ride without handcuffs.
The family alleged that the man who had claimed to be Chidinma’s father and was charged for obstructing police investigation was her (Chidinma) “sugar daddy” and not her biological father.
They had faulted the N1million bail granted to Chidinma’s father and one Babalola Disu, another suspect in the case by the magistrate court.
The family had alleged that Disu was “highly suspected to have carried out the murder”.
Ataga’s family premised its suspicion on information they received to the effect that Disu’s short rental apartment was directly opposite the apartment where Mr Ataga was killed.
The family, however, urged Ozekhome and his chambers to take up the case and see that justice is served through a very professional prosecution of all those involved in the crime.
Ozekhome also confirmed that he is now representing Ataga’s family
In a statement on Sunday, Ozekhome had said the bereaved family hired him “to protect and defend the interests of the Ataga family and his teeming friends, admirers, kinsmen, and business associates, to ensure that justice is duly served in the matter.”
Pictorial: Kano Agog As Atiku, Jonathan, Ooni of Ife, others Storm Yusuf Buhari’s wedding
The wedding Fatiha of Yusuf Buhari, the son of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), and Zahra Bayero, the daughter of Nasiru Ado Bayero, the Emir of Bichi took place in Kano State today.
The ceremony was attended by President Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
Other dignitaries in attendance include former president, Goodluck Jonathan; former vice president, Atiku Abubakar; former Niger president, Mahamadiu Isoufou; Kano State governor, Abdullahi Ganduje; Ekiti State governor, Kayode Fayemi; Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni; Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, amongst others.
Townhall meeting: Why we must urgently curb drug abuse in Nigeria, Obasa, stakeholders speak
Speaker says Lagos Assembly passing vital laws against drug abuse
Egunjobi pleads for more efforts in fight against substance abuse
The Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, on Thursday decried the increasing rate of drug abuse among youths and even parents in Nigeria.
The Speaker, who spoke at the 7th Annual Constituency Stakeholders‘ Meeting in his Agege Constituency 1, warned that this menace must be urgently checked to prevent its devastating effects on the growth and progress of the country.
According to Obasa, the Lagos State House of Assembly has been at the forefront of the fight against drug abuse through various legislations.
“At the Lagos State House of Assembly, the leadership and members of the House have always taken matters affecting residents and especially the youths very passionately.
“The House has continued to be proactive in the consideration of viable laws and policies that would enhance youth potentials and development.
“Some of the recent laws that are passed attest to government’s efforts on this matter and these include the law to amend the Lagos State Sports Commission law of 2015 to promote youth and sports development in Lagos and for connected purposes.
“The law will ensure that youths are provided with great opportunities not only in the area of recreation but where they can nurture, explore and utilise their potentials in sporting activities to become professional sportsmen and women.
“This would also take the minds of many of them off drug abuse and criminal activities,” the Speaker said.
Obasa listed other youth-oriented bills considered by the House to include two recent ones for the establishment of a university of education and another for the establishment of a university of science and technology, which aims to address the inadequacies in polytechnic education system in Nigeria.
“While the passage of the Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Corps is aimed at ensuring the safety of all in our neighbourhood, the prevalence of drug abuse amongst adults and youths, if not effectively addressed and curbed, will jeopardise the entire efforts of the House in the establishment of a safe, peaceful, and livable society.
“Consequently, we call on all stakeholders, residents, parents, teachers, students, school proprietors, religious organisations, celebrities, social media influencers, professional bodies, the academia, civil society organisations and community leaders to work in concert with the government for the common good of our society by saying ‘no to drug abuse trafficking’,” he said.
In his address at the event, the chairman of Agege Local Government Area, Alhaji Ganiyu Egunjobi, lamented that drug abuse had become so alarming that Buba Marwa, chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), recommended tests for public office holders, intending couples and admission seekers.
“If we continue in this manner and fail to salvage the situation, in no distant future, there would be an increase in the population of persons with drug abuse-induced health problems,” he warned.
Guests, who spoke at the event, commended the Speaker for the various projects he had attracted to the constituency. They also emphasised the need to effectively curb drug abuse with the clergy promising to carry the campaign to worship centres.
BREAKING: Five killed as gunmen ambush farmers in Modakeke
Gunmen on Friday morning ambushed and allegedly killed five farmers who were on their way to the farm at Modakeke town in Osun State.
It was gathered the incident happened around 7 am when the farmers were heading to their farms along Toro road in Modakeke.
The incident caused tension in the community as residents and policemen visited the scene to evacuate the corpses of the farmers.
Osun police spokesperson SP Yemisi Opalola said according to The Nation: “I heard some people were killed and the Commissioner of Police, Mr Olawale Olokode has deployed more of our men to the scene.
“Our men are doing everything possible to restore peace in the area.”
Gory videos of dead persons from the attack was sighted.
The attack happened on “Isese Day” 2021, as the Osun government declared Friday a public holiday to mark the festival. The festival is celebrated by Yoruba traditionalists globally. They call it ‘World Isese Day’.
Atiku Faults Buhari govt, Describes it As monumental failure
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has faulted the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration for not making concerted efforts at nation building.
According to him, the administration had not been able to fix the country and made it work.
Atiku who spoke on Thursday in Abuja at a public presentation of a book titled, “Remaking Nigeria: Sixty Years, Sixty Voices” edited by Chido Onumah, condemned the increasing insecurity and banditry in the country.
Insisting that Nigeria must be restructured to ensure accelerated development, the former presidential candidate said fixing Nigeria “would prevent the country from sleep-walking into disaster.”
Atiku said the government was making what he described as “utterly confusing and unproductive” efforts at economic development, adding that it was unfortunate that calls for restructuring have not been heeded by the government.
“When people see their leaders making those efforts genuinely, and experience improvements in their lives, they are likely to follow. Over the past six years, the leadership of this country at the federal level has failed and has hardly embarked on nation-building.
“They may have been making utterly confusing and unproductive efforts at economic development. However, it can be rightly argued that they have been un-building the nation by taking conscious and deliberate actions that not only make nation-building more difficult but also undo the achievements made in that regard by previous administrations.
“As we all know there were deliberate attempts made since the 1960s to forge a nation out of Nigeria: states creation, federal character, the NYSC, power rotation, unity schools, and multiple federal agencies.
“However imperfect, these were genuine attempts at giving each segment of the country a sense of belonging and a semblance of justice and equity and promote interactions among our peoples.
“All it has taken is one administration in six short years to tear up the fabric of that unity and make more Nigerians lose faith in Nigeria and question the rationale for having one united country.
“One lesson there for all of us is the need to always be vigilant and be prepared to defend our democracy, for it is through the democratic process that we can more easily promote the unity of our country.
“I strongly believe that Nigeria can and will remain one strong and united nation with significant strides in economic development to improve the lives of our peoples. However, we must not take it for granted,” Atiku said.
