08082019 - Storm as Kaduna govt lists fresh hurdles for El-Zakzaky

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16—Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2019 VISIT: From left— Oyo State Governor, Mr Seyi Makinde, Mr. Ray Atelly, Deputy Chairman, Nigeria British Chamber of Commerce, Mr Allan Davies and President of the chamber, Mr Kayode Falowo, during the chamber's visit to the governor in Ibadan, yesterday. Poly students kick against Sowore’s #RevolutionNow By Omeiza Ajayi & Ezra Ukanwa A N BUJA—THE a t i o n a l Association of Polytechnic Students NAPS has kicked against the #RevolutionNow movement spearheaded by the detained Sahara Reporters Publisher and activist-politician, Omoyele Sowore, saying it would never support any unconstitutional change of government. “NAPS uses this medium to distance itself from the said revolution as being championed by Omoyele Sowore and his allies. We believe in the pragmatic enthusiasm of seeking Flood: Yingi warns Delta residents over blocked drains By Festus Ahon ASABA—THE Special Adviser to the Delta State Governor on Environment and Marine Transportation, Hon Daniel Yingi has decried the nonchalant attitude of some residents of the state towards the environment. Yingi, who spoke with Correspondents after accompanying the State Commissioner for Environment, Mr Chris Onogba on visits to some flood prone areas in the state, said it was unfortunate for residents to turn their eyes against blocked drains in their neighborhoods. positive governance through peaceful protest but do not believe in the moral pedigree of Omoyele Sowore to lead such movement. Furthermore, NAPS as a body subscribes to the usage of tenets of democracy in changing a democratically elected government not through usage of civil unrest”, the association said yesterday in a communique issued at the end of its 44th Senate Meeting and Pre- Convention held between August 2nd and 4th at the Federal Polytechnic, Bida, Niger State. The communiqué was Edo communities benefit from cement company's scholarship fund, water projects By Alemma Aliu BENIN CITY—NOT less than six communities in Okpella, Etsako East local government area of Edo state has benefited from a fruit drink riding on the three unique selling propositions of “Healthy, Nutritious and Great Taste”. The fruit drink is targeted at children who require all the beneficial nutrients they can get to grow and function optimally. The brand comes in three variants, Orange, Watermelon and Mango and is fortified with key nutrients such as Vitamin-C and Glucose that improve immunity and give energy. Speaking at the unveiling ceremony in Lagos, Chief Harkishin Aswani, Managing Director, Tolaram Group, assured that the company would maintain the reputation of signed by Collins Ozele and Abdulmalik Usman, Chairman and Secretary of the Communiqué Drafting Committee respectively. On insecurity, NAPS called on the federal government to be more vigorous in “checkmating decadence and criminal activities of bandits across the states that have tremendously put our lives at risk”. The association also urged government to be diplomatic in handling issues on the Shi’ites Movement and implored the Federal Government “to respect court orders not peculiar only to the Islamic Movement in Nigeria IMN leaders but also the former National Security NSA and others in their category”. The Special Adviser to the Governor warned of the impending flooding as observed by the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, stressing that there was the need to mobilize towards ensuring that all water channels were opened up for free flow of waters whenever it rains. Hon Yingi explained that government can not be clearing drainages but will only come in when the drainages were not properly linked to collections points. He maintained that some flooded areas could not have experienced such but for the blocked drains, pointing out that it was sad for residents to be throwing debris into the drains. Yingi said, with the heavy water scheme by BUA Cement Company which it is providing as part of its corporate social responsibility to its host communities. Besides, the company also Tolaram Group introduces Goodlife Magic fruit drink By Nkiruka Nnorom LGroup AGOS—TOLARAM has made its entrance into the fruit drink market with the launch of “GoodLife Magik” fruit drink. The Tolaram Group is one of the largest conglomerates in West Africa which has over the years laid an indelible footprint especially in the Nigerian market with the introduction of numerous successful brands. GoodLife Magik is a healthy unwavering quality, which the group has established over the years. He said: “Tolaram Group is one of the largest manufacturers in Nigeria and the group has consistently produced strong household brands keeping in mind the consumers’ needs." Mrs. Bamidele Abiodun, wife of the Executive Governor, Ogun State, speaking at the event, commended the group for its unflinching marketing efforts in putting smiles on the faces of Nigerians through the introduction of numerous brands, which are actively topping the charts in their respective categories. While it frowned at the Federal Government’s “epileptic approach to the full implementation of the Degree Awarding status of the already selected Polytechnics while swiftly implementing same Status for College of Agriculture Zuru Kebbi State without putting into consideration alongside the earlier selected Polytechnics whose bills have spent almost a decade at the National Assembly”. The National Association of Polytechnic Students NAPS is an umbrella body that encompasses students of Polytechnics, Monotechnics, Colleges of Technology and other Allied in Nigeria. rains, flooding was inevitable, stressing that when the drains were properly disilted, the water would find its way to the nearby collection points. He also restated the commitment of the state government at ensuring that the effect of any natural disasters in the state was minimal on the people. yesterday inaugurated a scholarship board to select beneficiaries of the company's scholarship program for the communities. Manager in charge of administration of the company, Mr Richard Gidado, said the company has observed that the six communities in Okpella are in dire need of portable water supply for their daily domestic need thus necessitating the projects be sited in the communities. The six communities are Iddo, Imiakuri, Awuyemi, Ogute, Okhuonmunyio and Imiegiele. He said; "We identified the need in this environment and know that they have poor water supply in this place and our company has taken it as a priority among many other projects that we are going to run in the community to solve their water need and that is why we have come here today. World’s biggest hydroelectric project inches closer to reality in Congo Adream of building the world’s biggest hydroelectric project in the heart of Africa may be inching closer to reality. For decades, plans have been made and discarded to construct a series of hydroelectric power stations on Africa’s second-longest river that would generate almost twice the power of the Three Gorges Dam in China, the world’s largest. If completed, a Grand Inga Dam could go a long way to addressing one of the most debilitating obstacles to development across Africa from Nigeria to South Africa: electricity shortages. Late last year there was a sudden burst of activity around Grand Inga. Then-President Joseph Kabila signed an accord in October with two groups of Chinese and Spanish investors, who committed to funding technical studies before building and running an 11,050-megawatt facility called Inga III at a cost of $14 billion. The consortia, which include AEE Power Holdings SL and China Three Gorges Corp., also pledged to attract lenders and find buyers of the electricity elsewhere in Africa. That could be news of revolutionary import to Congo’s 80 million people, who make do with about 1,500 megawatts, about as much as typically needed for a city of 1 million in industrialized nations. Grand Inga could single-handedly generate more than 40,000 megawatts upon completion. Wall Street drops as bond market stokes recession fears U .S. stocks slipped on Wednesday, as investors reeling from rising trade tensions fled riskier assets for perceived safer havens, leading the bond market to price in a slide into recession. U.S. Treasury yields took another dramatic drop and the premium on three-month bill rates above 10-year note yields was at its most elevated levels since March 2007. This so-called inversion between the two maturities has preceded every U.S. recession in the past 50 years. The drop in yields also reflected a jump in expectations that the Federal Reserve would cut key borrowing costs three more times by year-end, with markets fully pricing in a reduction in September. [MMT/] “Whether the U.S. economy is strong enough to withstand the next phase of a trade war is giving people concern right now,” said Mike Loewengart, vice-president of investment strategy at E*Trade Financial in New York. Sahara lauds Investment opportunities in Angola’s downstream CURRENT efforts by the Angolan government to restructure the oil and gas sector offer opportunities for collaborations between local and international companies along the value chain in the industry, Wale Ajibade, Executive Director of Sahara Group, has said. These opportunities exist in local capacity development, infrastructure development as well as funding, Ajibade said while discussing African oil and gas market trends with a trade delegation from Southern Africa. Angola is the second largest oil producing country in sub- Saharan Africa and an OPEC member with output of approximately 1.55 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) and an estimated 17,904.5 million cubic feet of natural gas production. The nation also holds 9 billion barrels of proven oil resources and 11 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves, which represent great potential for further economic development and significant business opportunities. UNDP seeks inclusion in natural resources decisions THE United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, has advocated increased role for Nigerian women especially in the areas of decision making, planning and allocation of land and other critical natural resources in the country. Speaking at the Youth Leadership Entrepreneurship Access and Development, YOULEAD, Project’s Learning and Sharing Forum in Abuja, National Coordinator of the Global Environment Facility, GEF, Small Grant Programme of the UNDP, Mrs. Ibironke Olubamise, also emphasized more involvement of women in business. She also called for a national plan for women and youth entrepreneurship, with emphasis on environmental management, as this would ensure that all the resources needed are available. She said, “We are advocating more emphasis for women, not only to get engaged in sustainably doing business, but also to become part of decision makers in land and natural resources planning and distribution.” Olubamise noted that the UNDP GEF Small Grant programme had been playing a major role in the area of women empowerment. She said, “We start right from the policy, project development and right from the programme development’ we emphasise women. All stories credited to Reuters
My Boko Haram experience THIS week marks the tenth year when the nation woke up to the bruising clashes in some parts of the Northern states with a religious group that was hardly known then. The group which became better known as the Boko Haram went into a sustained campaign during the stretch of the last ten years, leading to wanton destruction and thousands of deaths in many parts of the country. For many of us who have survived, there is always one gruesome story or the other to tell. I was affected the very first day the notorious group struck. July 26, 2009 - the day the Boko Haram saga unfurled simultaneously in Bauchi and Maiduguri, my wife and children were on their way, driving from Abuja through Jos to Bauchi. Their final destination was Maiduguri. They were blissfully unaware of the impending skirmishes to occur that day between security men and the Boko Haram elements in Bauchi on their route, and also at their destination, Maiduguri. My wife was going back to Maiduguri where she was the head of the Ministry of Women Affairs. She had been on a weekend visit to the family’s homestead in Abuja and was taking some of the children who were on holiday with her. Both my wife and I were born and raised in Maiduguri and had been civil servants there. We had moved to Abuja at the turn of the millennium. I came on transfer to the Federal Civil Service and she tagged along to work in the Borno State governor’s lodge, Asokoro. When eventually she was promoted, she moved back to Maiduguri, thus setting the stage for our constant shuttle. The infamous day was a Sunday and I was holed up in my office somewhere in the administrative wing of the Presidential Villa, my place of posting, poring over files to prepare for the week ahead. I was, also, keenly following the movement of my family on phone, through the route they took: Abuja- Keffi-Barde-GidanWaya-Forest- Vom-Jos-Bauchi, etc. As regular travellers it was always frightful being on that route, particularly the stretch from the vicinity of Vom to Kuru, through Bukuru and traversing the length of Jos city, where many innocent lives were lost due to the communal disturbances prevalent to the area in that period. When eventually I heard that they were at the tip of Tilden Fulani, a Bauchi State town, just a few kilometres out of Jos, I heaved a sigh of relief. I thought the worst part of the journey was over. I lost concentration on their movement until I heard a report, an hour or two after, over the BBC Hausa afternoon service, about an ongoing fight between security forces and religious fanatics in Bauchi. I immediately became alarmed because I knew the ramifications of such fights. We had once lived through the Maitatsine bloody clashes in Bulumkuttu, Maiduguri, in 1982, and could vividly recall the carnage we witnessed. The Maitatsine goup, a fanatical gang took over that strategic settlement linking the town with the airport, including the only highway linked to the rest of the country. When the police were overwhelmed the military had to be called in. It was after days of heavy fighting and untold trauma on Maiduguri citizens that the fanatics were subdued. I tried getting my wife on the phone to put her on the alert but there was no contact. I looked for information from all the usual sources and they all confirmed my fears that a serious fight was going on in Bauchi and indeed it was with religious fanatics. I became frantic, phoning intermittently until after what seemed like a very long time my wife called to say they My wife was constantly on the phone relating the boom-boom sounds they were hearing from all directions were getting out of Potiskum which is some 200 kilometres away from Bauchi. I enquired from her if she noticed anything unusual when they were passing through Bauchi she replied in the negative. I heaved another sigh of relief and went back to my files. That was after 4.00 pm. Some moments before the call for the maghrib prayers when I was preparing to leave the office, I had a call from Maiduguri coming from a friend living in the State low-cost estate intimating that a confrontation was going on Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2019 —17 17 between one of the influential Mallams and security men. Mohammed Yusuf, the mallam was well-known for incendiary sermons, denouncing Western education and its influence. He had carved out an enclave for himself in Galadima ward, near the railway station, adjacent to the State low-cost estate,where he built his palatial residence and a mosque with a string of homes for his numerous acolytes. The whole area was known as Markaz, an Arabic word denoting headquarters. I had recently seen a congregation of his followers in the night in the vicinity of Mai Saje’s mosque near the zoo in the GRA. I cannot recall details of the occasion but I remember seeing them milling around, most of them on motor cycles, all in similar gears meant to intimidate: white dresses, distinctive short trousers, donning weird turbans and sporting grassy long beards. I have heard of their encounters with the police, always embellished to enhance their group's unassailability. I became more worried and rushed to inform my wife but they were probably getting to the end of their journey driving through Jakana, Mainok and Auno, the string of villages in the outskirts of Maiduguri, where phone services were very poor. By the time we spoke, they were already crossing Bulumkutu, and I realised they were still not aware of the enormity of what had happened in their wake or what was developing in Maiduguri. By the time they drove into the GRA where our home was situated, the conflagration that was raging in the railway/low-cost estate zone had engulfed much of the northern parts of Maiduguri and security forces had decreed a curfew on the whole city, restricting movements, so as to give them enough space to deal with the situation that was almost overwhelming them. When my family settled at home they found that they could not go out again. There was confusion everywhere as people were running helter-skelter. My wife was constantly on the phone relating the boom-boom sounds they were hearing from all directions. As reported later, it was probably about that time that the fanatics were fanning out of their enclave and were attacking to kill anyone in uniform. Their first port of call was the nearby police station which they reduced to rubble, killing all the policemen they could find. Next, was the New Prison, situated adjacent to the State low-cost estate, where they attacked and killed all the prison staff they could find. They also opened the gates of the prison to let the inmates to escape. The mayhem had just begun and would continue for most of the week, taking its toll mainly on the people living in the Lamisula and Gamboru areas. The marauding fanatics would even become so emboldened as to take the fight to the Police in their homes, attacking the Mobile Police Training College and murdering its second in command. In their misguided fury the fanatics set fire to the homes of the policemen and killed a number of them undergoing promotional training courses. The Nigerian Army had to be finally called in and it would take a sustained fight of some gruesome five days to subdue them and capture their leaders. For me, that Sunday was one long day of stress and trauma. And this went on for all the week. One could do nothing but wait. Fortunately, the situation stabilised at the weekend. The curfew was lifted and we celebrated the end of the skirmishes thinking that the nightmare was over, and we could carry on our lives as it were. We didn’t know that the nightmare was just beginning.... APC and its uncertain future By Suleiman Adamu Usman IT is undoubtedly a growing point of profound concern for those who genuinely care about the fortunes and future of the All Progressives Congress, APC, that the party is unstoppably collapsing into a precipitous abyss. It is indeed the overwhelming position of the crucial majority of the APC members that the current National Working Committee of the party is not by any means working for the evolvement of APC into a formidable massbased party. In fact, a considerable number of strategic APC leaders hold the hardly incontrovertible view that the working committee is grossly deficit in the capacity to work effectively and nourish the party into electoral viability with organisational superiority. This is not the time for continuing deception and diversion in the false narrative of APC’s performance in the 2019 presidential and general election. Honour demands that the Adams Oshiomhole-led committee must be prepared to subject itself to an internal earnest review for retrospective accountability. It is only with such show of humility and honesty that our party can navigate the path forward for growth and future victories. If the party hierarchy and the membership continue to tolerate barefaced lies such as the fabrication that the working committee played a stimulating role in the campaigns for President Buhari’s victory, then APC would have become hostage to perpetual deceit and domestic abuse by its national chairman. The party will consequently suffer internal decline presaging its decay and ultimate annihilation. How can the leaders of APC not be cognisant of the recent ignoble and despicable history of the party that once described itself as the largest party in Africa with a vow that it would hold national leadership for six decades (sixty years). The organisation in reference, the Peoples Democratic Party, which boasted of its infallibility approximating immortality, was at some point displaying the same kind of syndrome that Oshiomhole’s NWC is now exhibiting in the health of the APC. There were few PDP leaders and other Nigerians who warned the party then that the PDP was suffering from internal dictatorship, especially in the way it conducted its primary elections. The counsel that the apex leadership had lost touch with the grassroots of the PDP was not heeded. The irrevocable lesson of Who would have imagined that the APC national working committee will so recklessly proceed to ask the Supreme Court, just a few weeks ago, to review its decision regarding the Zamfara State governorship election? history is that arrogance, hubris and impunity by political party leaders, especially at the level of national working committees, will irreversibly end with damnation, decline and defeat. May the fate of PDP not be visited on the APC; the progressive congress should definitely avoid this road of death because the party should soon vanquish itself from an emperorlike siege. What further humiliation would the APC membership allow under its current national working committee? Oshiomhole’s pitiful performance at the helms of APC’s affairs has made such a potentially magnificent political party the laughing stock of the opposition and a source of depression among APC membership. The portrait of APC now is an organisation that is characterized by grave tactical errors and fatal strategic blunders. Consequently, the hopes of APC members nation-wide that the party would serve as catalyzing agency for President Buhari’s second term agenda is diminishing. The APC national chairman is making the party to constantly dance naked in the market place. APC is becoming a subject of hurtful derision and public stigmatisation. The party today stands very feebly before the jury of history. For instance, who would have imagined that the APC national working committee will so recklessly proceed to ask the Supreme Court, just a few weeks ago, to review its decision regarding the Zamfara State governorship election? T he outcome of utter dismissal that was unequivocally handed down by the apex court was definitely the expected result that most conscientious party members envisaged. Indeed anyone with minimum familiarity with the primary election disaster, created by the national working committee in Zamfara State, had no doubt that the wounds suffered by APC were unquestionably self-inflicted. The legal gamble was a simultaneous squander of the party’s funds to give the impression that APC was the victim of a judicial decision. Truth must be told for an unvarnished testimony for history: the fact that APC woefully and totally lost such a valuable APC Northwest State in the 2019 general elections was due to the dubious game in which the party’s national chairman was engaged during the primaries in Zamfara State. The painful consequence of that conduct has caused a situation where APC does not have a single member of the Zamfara House of Assembly, none in the House of Representatives, no senator and of course, the party lost the governorship seat. The party won only the presidential election in the state because of the mass attraction and personal charisma of President Buhari. With the organisational failure of the APC national working committee, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Zamfara State literally harvested where they did not sow. Up till date, the national working committee has not cared to offer the membership of the party a modicum of remorse or an explanation as to why APC members in Zamfara State were disenfranchised as a consequence of the conduct of the party’s chairman. Will the APC be re-awakened to ensure the investigation of the Zamfara political tragedy? But more troubling for the APC is the exigent fact that even as this article is being written, the leadership of the party is still engaging in actions capable of further fracturing and slashing the soulful fabric of APC solidarity. While grassroots APC party leaders are ashamed of the fact that there are currently about 900 APC primary election-related cases in the courts, our chairman is already creating arenas for fresh crisis in locations where he intends to impose his will on the people in varieties of questionable political scenarios. In fact, the last place where one would have thought that he will engender crisis would have been the only APC state in the South-South region. But the only principal consideration that seems to matter to him is his personal interest. The emergence of APC as a political party was a historic phenomenon for Africa’s giant nation. Supposed party leaders with diminished vision of momentous chronicles of times cannot, therefore, be allowed to decimate the optimism that APC represents. The progressive congress will ultimately emerge stronger without an emperor-like national chairman. •Usman, ‘a concerned member of APC’, wrote from Abuja C M Y K
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08082019 - Storm as Kaduna govt lists fresh hurdles for El-Zakzaky

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