03072019 - Buhari's Ruga policy, an explosive issue — SOYINKA

16—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 3, 2019
CONFERENCE:
From left—NNPC
Group General
Manager, Group Public
Affairs Division, GGM,
Ndu Ughamadu,
incoming- NNPC
Group Managing
Director, GMD, Mele
Kyari, MD, NCTL,
Tunde Akinpelu and
GMD, Aiteo Eastern
E&P Co. Ltd, Victor
O k o r o n k w o ,
welcoming the
incoming GMD to Aiteo
Mobile Exhibition at the
2019 Nigeria Oil and
Gas, NOG conference
in Abuja.
Your time is up, Kogi group tells Gov Bello
LOKOJA—A sociopolitical
group in
Kogi State, Kogi Rainbow
Democrats, KRD, has
warned against the
fielding of Governor
Yahaya Bello as
candidate of the ruling
All Progressives
Congress, APC, in the
November 16, Kogi
governorship contest.
The group lamented that
the governor had made the
party so unattractive in the
state just as it alleged that
governor Bello is among
those creating tension in
Politicians feasting from Obaseki, Oshiomhole's
fued, says Abudah
By Alemma Aliu
BENIN CITY—AS the
crisis between the National
Chairman of the All
Progressives Congress,
APC, and home state
governor, Godwin Obaseki
continues, the
spokesperson of the Otaru
of Auchi, Alhaji Usman
Abudah yesterday said
there were some politicians
who are feasting from the
crisis and were ensuring
that the crisis continues.
Reacting to the report by
Vanguard yesterday that
President Muhammadu
Buhari had three weeks
ago directed Obaseki to
settle with Oshiomhole,
Abudah said the Otaru of
Auchi, HRH Alhaji Aliru
Momoh Ikelebe III
suggested a similar way
forward when the governor
and some other traditional
rulers were with him to
break fast during
Ramadan.
He said; “I think it is
time the people lay this
crisis to rest and it is
Obaseki and Oshiomhole
that can end that once they
meet as they will call their
foot soldiers to order once
they both agree.
“When Governor Obaseki
visited the Otaru of Auchi
to break fast with some other
traditional rulers in Edo
North during the
Ramadan, the Otaru told
him to meet with
the party by plotting to fight
the APC National Working
Committee (NWC) due to
his second term ambition.
The group in a message
signed by Jimoh Unuwa
Kadiri, Secretary General,
and issued in Lokoja, they
accused governor Bello of
employing foul tactics, all
in the bid to force himself
on the people of the state.
According to them: "We
are all familiar with the
desperate instincts of a
drowning man. No right
thinking Kogi man or
woman, boy or girl will
Oshiomhole and that it is
only two of them that will
be able to resolve the crisis.
“He advised the governor
that that is the best way
forward because they
understand what is
happening more than the
other persons in the whole
crisis. I believe that there
Stronger Delta: PDP chieftain lauds Okowa for
appointing Iyasere, Adigwe, others as SAs
By Elizabeth
Uwandu
A
S A B A —
GOVERNOR
Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta
State, has appointed six
additional Special
Advisers, bringing on
board some of the best
individuals to assist him
actualise the Stronger
Delta Agenda of his
second tenure expected
to end on May 29, 2023.
A statement by
Secretary to Delta State
Government, Chiedu
Ebie, said the following
persons have been
appointed as Special
Advisers by the governor;
Chief Edwin Uzor, Mary
Iyasere, Johnson Erijo,
Prince Kelly Penawou,
Mike Okeme and Pascal
Adigwe.
Reacting to the news of
accept pleas for Governor
Yahaya Bello's second
coming, and sensing the
clear and present danger of
going through direct
primaries of APC, Gov.
Bellois allegedly spending
more Kogi resources to
recruit some APC
governors to work against
the National Chairman, so
he can obtain his indirect
primaries and procure a
second term ticket through
black market ploy. Let us
warn all those in league
with Yahaya Bello that the
blood of the dead workers
are some greedy politicians
who are reaping from the
crisis and don’t want it to
end. The earlier they
(Oshiomhole and Obaseki)
know this the better for them”
Vanguard reliably gathered
that some elders in the
All Progressives Congress
(APC) have been holding
series of meetings to resolve
the appointments, a
chieftain of the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP and
and a Fellow of the
Civilian Institute of
D e m o c r a t i c
Administration, FCIDA,
Fred Oghenesivbe, in a
statement in Asaba,
yesterday, commended
the governor, for bringing
on board key professionals
and technocrats who
have distinguished themselves
in their respective
fields and in public service.
He thanked the governor
for bringing Iyasere on
board as one of the
strategic team members of
the Stronger Delta
Agenda, while also
congratulaing May
Iyasere, a former
Commissioner for
Commerce and Industry
who were denied years of
unpaid salaries will be visited
upon them and their
generations , if not by man,
certainly by God.
"Let us thank President
Muhammadu Buhari for
upholding the tenets of
internal democracy by
replying Governor Yahaya
Bello that the Presidential
Villa is not the avenue for
his return ticket of APC to
recontest the forthcoming
November Governorship
election, but the overall
decision of Kogi people."
the rift between the two. It
was gathered that the elders
have met with Obaseki and
his deputy, Philip Shaibu,
they are expected to meet
with Oshiomhole and thereafter
meet with the trio and
other actors with the hope
that once the issues are resolved
between these actors,
others would fall in line.
in Okowa’s first tenure,
for making the list of the
new Special Advisers,
pointing out that her
service to Deltans and the
State from 2015 to 2019,
was exemplary which
helped in the attainment
of certain socio-economic
objectives of the Smart
Agenda.
EU open to talks with U.S. in aircraft
subsidies dispute
THE European Union said on Tuesday it was open
to talks with Washington in a dispute over aircraft
subsidies after the United States threatened an additional
$4 bln in tariffs on EU goods including olives, Italian
cheese and Scotch whisky.
Just days after reaching a truce in the U.S.-China trade
war, the U.S. Trade Representative's office (USTR) opened
the new front with Europe on Monday in the long-running
dispute.
It added the list of additional products to $21 billion
worth of EU goods that could be hit with tariffs announced
in April - alarming industries on both sides of the Atlantic.
The EU hit back, saying the dispute should be adjudicated
by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the
United States could not make its own tally of potential
hurt to calculate retaliation.
Arizona to pull incentive for Nike
plant over sneaker recall
ARIZONA will withdraw financial incentives for
Nike Inc's (NKE.N) manufacturing plant in the
state after the sportswear maker pulled the release of a
sneaker that featured a colonial-era version of the American
flag, Governor Doug Ducey said on yesterday.
The world's largest sportswear maker recalled the shoe
after former NFL quarterback and Nike sponsor Colin
Kaepernick asked the company not to sell a shoe with a
symbol that he and others consider offensive because of
its connection to an era of slavery, the Wall Street Journal
reported here on Monday.
Nike had planned to release a new version of the Air
Max 1 sneaker ahead of the Fourth of July holiday that
featured a version of the U.S. flag with 13 white stars
representing the first U.S. colonies. The flag is commonly
known as the "Betsy Ross flag."
"Words cannot express my disappointment at this terrible
decision. I am embarrassed for Nike," Ducey, a
Republican, said in a series of tweets here on the recall.
Govt approves first CES for extractive
companies, others
THE federal government has approved Nigeria's
first-of-its-kind community relationship management
tool, the Community Engagement Standards
(CES), developed by CSR-in-Action.
This will serve as the acceptable framework for engagement
between extractive companies and oil-producing
communities in the Niger Delta and other oilproducing
communities across the country.
The CES was developed following empirical research
findings of poor or inadequate and ineffective communication
and engagement with communities as the major
factor responsible for the lack of mutually beneficial
relationship between companies and communities,
which in turn has contributed to insecurity and retrogressive
development in the sector.
During a two-day CES Presentation Workshop to government
ministries and agencies to adopt the CES in
Abuja, Dr. Folashade Yemi Esan, Permanent Secretary,
Ministry of Petroleum Resources (MPR), described the
CES as a "decisive tool towards the restoration of peace
and stability in the Niger Delta".
In his remark, Mr Charles Achodo, Special Adviser to
the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources on Niger
Delta Affairs, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, stated that the principal
goal of the CES aligns with federal government's '7 Big
Wins' for the industry.
He opined that the CES will change the narrative from
"Communities are polluted and ravaged because of the
companies operating in them to communities fare better
because of the companies operating in them" when
operationalised by companies.
He further suggested that that at operational level,
the CES should be a criterion companies must meet for
social development.
Oil dives 3% on demand worries
even as OPEC, allies extend cuts
OIL prices fell about three percent on yester
day, even after OPEC and allies including
Russia agreed to extend supply cuts until next
March, as weak manufacturing data had investors
worried that a slowing global economy could dent
oil demand.
Brent crude LCOc1 futures fell $1.67, or 2.6 percent,
to $63.39 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate
(WTI) crude CLc1 futures fell $1.81, or 3.1 percent,
to $57.28 a barrel, after touching their highest
in more than five weeks on Monday.
Some stories credited to Reuters