04042019 - Nigeria 7 other nstions home to world's hungriest - UN

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Vanguard, THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019 — 30 :Vanguard News :@vanguardnews :@vanguardnews NEWS HOTLINES: 08052867023, 08052867058 PRESENTATION: From left— Desk Officer, Ministry of Education, District 4, Sabo Yaba, Obajimi Rilwan; Independent Non-Executive Director, Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria Ltd, SCBN, Opunimi Akinkugbe; Chairman, Board of Directors, SCBN, Sola Adepetun; Chief Executive Officer, SCBN, Bola Adesola; laptop recipient from Surulere Junior Secondary School, Adeoti Islamiat; Executive Secretary, Youth Empowerment Foundation, Iwalola Akin-Jimoh and Independent Non-Executive Director, SCBN, Kyari Abba Bukar, at the laptop presentation ceremony for girls under the bank’s Girl Empowerment, GOAL at the SCBN's Head Office in Lagos. INEC presents certificates of return to Ganduje, others •As PDP state Assembly members-elect shun ceremony By Abdulmumin Murtala with agency report K ANO—THE Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, yesterday presented certificate of return to Kano State Governorelect, Abdullahi Ganduje. Similarly, the state deputy governor-elect, Nasiru Gawuna and 23 state Assembly memberselect were also presented with the certificates of return. The 13 state Assembly members-elect of the People's Democratic Party were conspicuously absent during the occasion which was held at the Sani Abacha Indoor sports Complex in Kano. The PDP state constituency memberselect that were absent are for Dala, Nasarawa, Kano Municipal, Gwale, Fagge and Tarauni constituencies. Others are for Kibiya, Kumbotso, Dawakin Kudu, Gezawa, Ungoggo, Bebeji and Rogo constituencies. Speaking after receiving the certificate, Ganduje promised to lay a solid foundation for the social and economic development of the state through the provision of quality education. According to him, the state government would soon unveil its plans for partners and private investors to enable them come to the state and invest. Ganduje said the state government would provide incentives to enable investors wishing to establish their businesses to do so with ease. Acoording to him, “Over the next few weeks, I will be unveiling series of plans to ensure every child from Kano receives quality education, including computer and technology education, to ensure that in 15 years, Kano is the most educated state in subsahara Africa, and the most attractive destination for the world’s leading technology driven businesses. “Our government cannot do this alone. We will also unveil extensive plans and incentives for partners and private investors to come build businesses in Kano. If you want to setup innovative businesses or educational institutions, Kano is waiting to welcome you.We will also unveil a plan to partner with our local communities to ensure even the poorest of our communities have access to schools to educate their children. We will all grow together. Whether you are rich, middle class, or in our most local locations, Kano will welcome you and together build a collective wealth of the future". “I call on every citizen of Kano State, every resident and supporter, the time to build the future is now. Let us do this together" Rumpus in Adamawa Assembly; gov, speaker escape impeachment By Umar Yusuf YOLA—THERE was pandemonium yesterday at Adamawa State House of Assembly, as irate members threatened to impeach the outgoing Governor Mohammed Jibrilla and the Assembly Speaker, Mijinyawa Kabir. Most members who were defeated in the last general elections attacked one another verbally with harsh words.However, intervention by security operatives attached to the house saved the situation from degenerating into physical assault. The mace of the house was hurriedly smuggled out of the assembly complex to avert unpleasant action against the governor and Speaker. The assembly had reconvened after the general elections to consider an executive letter from Governor Jibrilla that he was proceeding on two weeks leave. However, the proceedings turned sour when several members questioned the propriety of the governor going on leave at the period when he ought to stay in office to attend to crucial issues and decisions he took in the last four years. They also accused him of trying to abscond from office because of some issues. The situation however degenerated when the member representing Hong constituency, Hassan Barguma, accused the Speaker, Kabiru Mijinyawa, of over protecting Governor Jibrilla and requested he stepped aside so that appropriate actions could be taken against the governor. The Speaker with the assistance of the Sergeantat-arms, however quickly exited the chamber with the mace amidst rancour,. The aggrieved members chased the speaker and Sergeant-at-arms, to the Speaker’s office, but were denied entry by security men attached to the Speaker. The deputy speaker, Lamsambani Dili, declined to comment on the commotion stating that the assembly adjourned hurriedly for two months because the management was preparing an induction course for newly elected members. Kogi leaders warn against plot to sack Justice Ajanah By Dirisu Yakubu K OGI—LEADERSand stakeholders in Kogi State have advised the State House of Assembly not to allow it to be used in the attempt to remove the Chief Judge of the State, Justice Nasir Ajanah. The stakeholders on the auspices of Kogi State Leaders Forum, gave the warning yesterday in a statement signed by its secretary, Suleiman Abdullahi even as it described the alleged plot as illegal, and against the provision of the 1999 Constitution as amended. The statement read in part: “The proper processes for the removal of the Chief Judge of Kogi State, or any Chief Judge for that matter, can only be activated after the National Judicial Council, NJC, has investigated reported infractions against such a judge, and found him wanting. “Recent attempts to sidetrack due process and rule of law in the removal of Chief Judges in Kwara and Abia States, respectively, for instance, were nullified by courts. Justice Raliat Elelu- Habeeb of Kwara State, who was unceremoniously removed from office in 2009, was reinstated by the Supreme Court of Nigeria, in a unanimous ruling in February 2012. The apex court ruled that the governor of Kwara State at the time did not have the power to sack her without recourse to and the approval of the NJC. Kwara gov-elect appoints transition c'ttee By Demola Akinyemi K WARA—STATE governor-elect Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, has named an 80-member Transition Committee to facilitate a smooth takeover from the outgoing administration. The governor-elect made the announcement in a statement issued in Ilorin, the state capital, yesterday by his spokesman, Rafiu Ajakaye. The Chairman of the 80- member Transition Committee is Aminu Adisa Logun, an alumnus of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies,NIPPS, Kuru. James Ayeni is the Deputy Chairman, while a one-time Permanent Secretary and former Clerk, Kwara State House of Assembly, Muhammad Razaq Umar, will serve as the Transition committee Secretary. Other members of the committee, according to the statement include the APC Chairman in the State, Bashir Bolarinwa; the three Senatorial District Party Chairmen; former governorship aspirants or representatives; party chieftains and elders. Also included in the committee are representatives of youth, women, labour, experts and professionals in different fields of human endeavour, including retired military and security officers. The statement noted that the broad representation reflected in the selection of the committee members demonstrated the avowed commitment of the Governorelect to fulfil his promise of an allinclusive government under the new APC administration in the state. Govt urged to partner stakeholders to provide potable water By Demola Akinyemi K WARA—FEDERAL and other tiers of governments have been called upon to partner with stakeholders to urgently address the problem of acute shortage of potable water across the country. The Executive Director of Kwara State based Springs Health Initiative, Bamigboye James, who spoke while addressing stakeholders at the celebration of the General Assembly on Water Sanitation and Hygiene in collaboration with United Nations, UN, International World Water Day, expressed concern that over 120million Nigerians had no access to decent means of defecation. He contended that recent reports and data of near or absence of portable water for citizens had caused untimely and avoidable deaths to many innocent Nigerians due to no fault of theirs, describing the situation as unacceptable.
EMINENT statesmen from the North and South of Nigeria publicly endorsed the candidature of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in this year’s presidential election. Leaders of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum, the Northern Elders Forum, the Middle Belt Forum, Afenifere and Ohanaeze Ndigbo came together under the umbrella of the Leaders and Elders Forum of Nigeria and gave their collective backing to the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party. They said Atiku “demonstrated the deep understanding of the critical needs of the country at this time and possesses the capacity to proffer clear solutions in that respect.” The former vice president, the elders concluded, was the only candidate who could "retool Nigeria on the path of development as a true federal entity”. They were right. I too warmed to Atiku’s candidacy. Over many years of contributing to public discourse on Nigeria, I have advocated three main ideas - political restructuring, free market economy and wider institutional reforms - as the way forward. So for me, only the candidate with credible intellectual and policy commitments to root-andbranch economic, political and institutional reforms could lead Nigeria. Well, Atiku ticked the boxes. His manifesto document, entitled “My plan to get Nigeria working again,” was a masterpiece in policy reform ideas. In a country where policy Atiku’s 2019 bid: Between the messenger and the message analysis is shallow, Atiku put intellectual rigour into analysing and proffering solutions to what he rightly described as Nigeria’s “economic and political structural fault lines.” His economic vision was radical, as was his agenda for political and wider institutional transformation. Without a doubt, I preferred Atiku to President Muhammadu Buhari, whose socialist economic policies and stubborn resistance to political restructuring hindered Nigeria economically, politically and socially in his first term, and whose re-election “Next Level” manifesto was a road to more of the same. Unsurprisingly, Atiku was also the choice of international investors, who preferred his bold market-based economic reform agenda to Buhari’s dirigiste and antibusiness policies and actions. The Buhari government is arguably more hostile to businesses than any previous government in Nigeria - think of the arbitrary, disproportionate and punitive actions taken against foreign investors, such as MTN! At every international business event that I attended in Europe, the vibes and mood music were certainly in favour of Atiku, whose commitment to economic liberalisation, including privatisation, was Nigeria cannot be united and stable unless it's politically restructured; it cannot prosper unless it becomes a private sector-driven, open and competitive economy overwhelmingly preferred to Buhari’s statist and often ruthless interventionism. But I wasn’t starry-eyed about Atiku. I shared widespread concerns about his personal reputation. However, the bigger picture mattered more. For me, if Atiku could implement his wide-ranging and far-reaching economic, political and institutional reform plans and set Nigeria on the path of true Vanguard, THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019—31 market economy and federalism, that would offset his alleged past misdeeds, which I hoped he wouldn’t repeat in office. Surely, Atiku was not a saint, but, compared with Buhari, he was, as I wrote in this column, “the lesser of two evils”! Well, the election has come and gone. Of course, the outcome remains controversial. The contest was widely predicted to be close. Few thought Buhari could wallop Atiku in the North or beat him by over four million votes across the country. To be sure, the poll was marred by serious irregularities, including the abuse of incumbency, and some have argued that Buhari’s massive votes in the North were inflated. But, as I once wrote, while there were significant irregularities in the presidential election, they did not materially alter the outcome, although there might have been some vote inflation. That said, the matter is now in court and we must await the verdict of the judges, who, in the interests of Nigeria’s democratic and political development, must do the right thing! Yet, here’s the point. Even if Atiku finally lost in court, he should be proud that he represented a real choice, a real alternative, in this year’s presidential election. He set an agenda for retooling and transforming Nigeria that cannot be ignored. Truth is, Nigeria cannot be united and stable unless it's politically restructured; it cannot prosper Send Opinions & Letters to: opinions1234@yahoo.com unless it becomes a private sector-driven, open and competitive economy; and it cannot be an effective state, and make real progress, unless it transforms its bureaucratic institutions and tackle corruption through robust institutional means rather than a personalised rule. These were the reform programmes that Atiku set out in granular detail in his election manifesto. A long-standing advocate of political restructuring, Atiku argued, rightly, that “the Nigerian states have been reduced to parastatals of the Federal Government” and promised to devolve powers, responsibilities and resources to the country’s sub-units. On market reform, he promised “to pursue with vigour the deregulation and liberalisation of the economy”, including the privatisation of state-owned enterprises, notably NNPC. He set out an elaborate agenda for public-sector reform, and a robust institutionally-driven anti-graft strategy, including a set of “first 100 days in office” immediate actions. Let’s face it, Atiku lost the election largely because of negative perceptions about his integrity. But Nigeria must not throw away the baby with the bath water; it must separate the message from the messenger. For this country needs Atiku’s economic, political and institutional reform ideas to prosper. What’s more, the ideas, particularly political restructuring, simply won’t go away! Importance of citizen participation in fixing Nigeria By Ndidi Uwechue In the face of all that is ailing Nigeria, It is so much easier to just sit and watch, and do nothing. It is so much easier to just sit and complain, and do nothing. It is so much easier to just sit and dream, and do nothing. It is so much easier to just sit, kneel or prostrate in prayer, and do nothing. HOWEVER it is citizen participation (or lack of), that shapes the current state and the future of any nation, including Nigeria. Clearly Nigeria has reached crisis point. What we, the people do now, or do not do now, will determine the kind of future we will have, and that our children and grandchildren will have. Even though we are from different backgrounds, have different educational standards, have different economic statuses, one major thing connects us all, and that is that we are Nigerians and, therefore, the state of the nation will affect us all one way or another. Citizen participation means that every one of us, even our children, can get involved in doing something that will make the living conditions better for all of us. In a democracy the power to change things is actually more with the people, and less with the politicians. However, most Nigerians do not know this! We think the power is with politicians because we have not been taking citizen participation seriously. But we can change that. Citizen participation gives every individual an opportunity to influence and change political, social, economic and public decisions and allows us to be an important part of the democratic decision-making in Nigeria. By citizen participation the people become part of the governance structure and can through the strength of people power actually direct governance! Nigeria’s democracy is still relatively young and still developing. We now need to add citizen participation into our lives, and this will make us use our power and our responsibility as citizens. There are many ways to effect citizen participation and it involves using some of your time in a cause that will benefit you, your family, your community and your country. Everything needs to be improved so we have a lot of citizen participation to do so that our children and their children can inherit a better country, and have a better quality of life. Our citizen participation does not end at voting for public officers but is an ongoing activity. After elections we then help in the governance of our country by things such as pushing for new laws that will improve our lives and our society, by forming pressure groups, by recalling lawmakers who are inept, by campaigning for policies and services that will make our future better, safer and more secure. We can look around us at our environment and public services to apply our citizen participation for the improvement of our country. We can use social media, communication media eg. WhatsApp, our phone videos and camera, newspapers, magazines, newsletters, the internet, town hall meetings, mass gatherings, etc to assist us in our citizen participation activities. In Nigeria our young democracy was hijacked early on by people who were unpatriotic, who had no concern for the people, but whose aim was to steal public money and spend it on themselves, their families and their friends. Although Nigeria has now become severely disabled by these corrupt leaders (politicians and civil servants) we still have the means to reverse the damage that was done to our people and our nation. However it will take our collective and determined effort through citizen participation. “...Ensuring that government actually works for the public good requires informed, organized, active and peaceful citizen participation. Citizens must, therefore, understand ideas about citizenship, politics and government. They need knowledge to Citizen participation is a pillar of democracy and is necessary for a sustainable democracy make decisions about policy choices and the proper use of authority, along with the skills to voice their concerns, act collectively and hold public officials (i.e., elected representatives, civil servants, and appointed leaders) accountable. ..” (National Democratic Institute, Washington DC) It has become the norm in Nigeria to talk about the three arms of government. These are the Executive (the Cabinet), the Legislative (the National Assembly), and the Judiciary (the Courts). However, in a properly functioning democracy there should be a fourth arm, and that is the people power through citizen participation activities. In order to fix Nigeria, this fourth arm of governance needs to bring itself out and become properly effective. Elections come around every four years and if the leader is bad too much damage will be done in that time, so voting power is just not powerful enough. This is why citizen participation which is an ongoing people power is essential for creating a pleasant country. Thus, every Nigerian (starting from secondary school age) should regularly contemplate these questions: •What is purpose of the government? •How important are my and others’ human rights? •How satisfied am I with the way the government is working? Every Nigerian (starting from secondary school age) should know at least in principle Clause 14 of the Constitution which states: (1) The Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be a State based on the principles of democracy and social justice. (2) It is hereby, accordingly, declared that: (a) Sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through this Constitution derives all its powers and authority; (b) The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government; and (c) The participation by the people in their government shall be ensured in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution. Citizen participation is a pillar of democracy and is necessary for a sustainable democracy. It means citizens performing their social responsibility of participation in governance as part of their civic duties. Citizen participation is both a duty and an honour. Nigeria is at crisis point, and our people are now ready for action through citizen participation. •Uwechue, a retired London Police Officer and a pro-social advocate, wrote from Ogwashi- Uku, Delta State
Page 1 and 2: OLU FASAN STATE OF THE NATION Atiku
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Page 17 and 18: After the elections: The next level
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04042019 - Nigeria 7 other nstions home to world's hungriest - UN

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