IYANDA'SBLOG

09/08/20

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that he was pained when United States President, Donald Trump, called him into his office at the White House and asked him, “Why are you killing Christians?”

Buhari said he took his time to explain to his US counterpart that the killings of Christians in Nigeria had nothing to do with ethnicity or religion.

The President disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja at the First Ministerial Performance Review Retreat of his second term.

Buhari said, “I believe I was about the only African among the less developed countries the President of United States invited and when I was in his office only myself and himself, only God is my witness, he looked at me in the face, he said why are you killing Christians. I wonder, if you were the person how you would react. I hope what I was feeling inside did not betray my emotion, so I told him that the problem between the cattle rearers and stagnant farmers I know is older than me not to talk of him. I think I am a couple of years older than him.

“So, I tried and explained to him, this has got nothing to do with ethnicity or religion. It is a cultural thing which was failing the nation.

“The next problem I want to tell you is how we found ourselves when I say us, I mean members of the APC. When we promised three things, security, economy and fighting corruption, we repeated the same thing last year. But I want the Nigerian elite to please encourage and judge us fairly when we came. Between 1999 and 2014, I will like you to please check the average production was 2.1m barrels per day, the average cost was $100 per barrel.

“When we came, it collapsed to $37 to $38 per barrel and the militants were unleashed on the administration, the production went down. I want you to please reflect what was the condition of the infrastructure then in spite the earnings, the roads, there was no power and up to now there is no power, where did the money go.

“So, please encourage your friends, the elites, to reflect on what this administration has done, what APC has done and what we have achieved. Well I am doing my best, God has given me two chances.”

Politics United States of America News AddThis : Original Author : SaharaReporters, New York Disable advertisements :
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Mimiko, Ajayi No Longer Relevant, Governor Akeredolu Says Ahead Of Election

Ondo Governor Rotimi Akeredolu

Ondo State governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, and candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the October 10 governorship election in the state, has attacked his predecessor, Olusegun Mimiko, and incumbent deputy governor, Agboola Ajayi, describing them as traitors.

Governor Akeredolu, who spoke in an interview on Arise TV, said Mimiko and Ajayi, who is now candidate of Zenith Labour Party for October's election, were no longer relevant in the politics of the state.

Ondo Governor Rotimi Akeredolu

He said, "Mimiko was never my ally. I ran against him in 2012 and I ran against Jegede too in 2015, so why would you say Mimiko was my ally. The only thing is that I have treated him fairly like no other governor has treated their predecessors.

"But Mimiko has his own trait. Let us leave this and if Agboola with what he did, found solace in Mimiko, it is because they share the same traits. People who are prone to betray others would want to come together. So, why are we worried about them.

"Mimiko is a spent force and he's dead politically. Probably, he needed some resurrection and some support so that Agboola can have some money to waste because he can always support him. So, let them continue.

"Let us be sincere with ourselves. Who is Mimiko in the politics of Ondo State today? He is finished politically and Agboola can't even resuscitate him and whatever they want to do, they can do it.

"We are not a gathering of betrayers. Mimiko worked with Adefarati, did he not betray him? He also betrayed Agagu. I and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu supported him to become governor but he still betrayed us.

"He cannot be my ally. I only brought Agboola to balance power in the state. Tell me who can be in one political party in three months. He is an inconsistent person."

Akeredolu added that the state needed a well-read and learned person like the candidate of the people's Democratic Party, Mr Eyitayo Jegede, but noted that he would still have to wait for his own time to govern the state.

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Four Nigerians Arrested In Philippines For Allegedly Hacking Bank’s System

Four Nigerians have been arrested in Philippines for their alleged involvement in the hacking and diversion of funds from banks, ABS CBN News reports.

In a statement on Tuesday by the National Bureau of Investigation's Cybercrime Division chief, Vic Lorenzo, it was alleged that the four Nigerians violated the Access Device Law, Anti-Cybercrime law, and falsification of public documents.

Google/cybercrime

The statement reads, “The fraudsters’ – Nigerians – transactions were traced when they hacked a system of one Philippines bank, where at least P100 million were transferred and funneled into a different account. The international syndicate is complicated to the point that they study the system’s flaws. Once they see a weakness, they will take advantage of that.

“One of the suspects’ Filipina girlfriend admitted to having used her account to deposit and withdraw money amounting to at least P2 million, which was supposedly for tuition. Blank ATM cards and bank receipts were confiscated from the suspects.”

However, the Nigerians denied the allegations, saying they were in Philippines to study and they “know nothing about the hacking incident”.

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Gunmen Kill Civil Defence Officer In Kaduna State

NSCDC

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps has said that one of its officers, Bulus Sanda, was killed by gunmen in Kaduna State.

This was contained in a statement by the NSCDC Commandant in the state, Babangida Dutsinma.

NSCDC

He said that the late Sanda, who joined the corps in 2010, was abducted from his residence at Mararaba-Rido, Chikun Local Government Area of the state.

“His last location was Kaduna-North Division. He even received an award a day before his abduction and eventual death,” he said.

The commandant commiserated with the family of the deceased and prayed God to grant them the fortitude to bear the loss.

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OPC Blasts Nigerian Government, Says Subsidy Removal Wrongly-timed

The Oodua Peoples Congress has warned the Nigerian Government that the increase in the price of petrol and electricity would inflict hardship on ordinary citizens.

OPC in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Yinka Oguntimehin, described the hike as an attempt to push Nigerians to the wall, saying government was sitting on a time bomb.

The group asked the Nigerian Government to reverse its decision in order to make life easier for citizens or incur their wrath.

The statement reads, "No good citizen will be happy with the recent increase in the prices of petroleum products, electricity, as well as the DSTV tariffs. It is the worst decision ever made by a government that prides itself as the government of the people. With this increase, the FG is sitting on a time bomb, with no respect to the feelings and suffering of the people.

"At the tail end of former Oresident Goodluck Jonathan's government, fuel was sold for N87 per litre, but since the inception of President Muhammadu Buhari's government in 2015, the pump price of fuel had increased on three occasions with over 100 per cent. No government had ever done that. Therefore, the labour union and other civil society groups should rise to the occasion, by raising their voices against such insensitive decision, as they did during the Jonathan administration.

"We can hardly believe the reason behind the removal of the fuel subsidy. The timing was wrong and Nigerians are suffering under this administration.

"The recent hike in the prices of fuel and electricity is most unfortunate and it is capable of soiling the image of the Nigerian Government because they had tampered with the prices of such very important commodities that have direct impact on the economy and the lives of the people.”

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Resistance 101: Understanding The Issues And Taking Responsibility By Jaye Gaskia

The author, Jaye Gaskia

In the midst of the current unfolding crisis of hardship inducing, poverty enabling, and life-threatening maladministration and bad governance, a lot of citizens have been left submerged and almost drowning in anger and confusion, or confused anger.

And this is quite understandable. There are those who have quickly gone back to the archives, and in this internet age, everyone who has ever been active online leaves a digital trail, an almost indelible digital footprint.

As they have rushed back to the past, they have been asking why certain people and certain organisations are not or have not been speaking out! And by speaking out they actually do not mean that these certain persons and organisations have been silent, because the truth is that they haven’t been silent. What they do mean is that these certain persons and organisations have not yet gone to the streets, mounted barricades, organised and led protests. And herein lies the big problem, the real challenge.

Jaye Gaskia

Activism, like being in politics should be a calling, not a career; an activist [as should a politician] should be moved and driven by conviction [ideological, political, or both], and not by pecuniary interest; s/he should be driven by commitment and a quest to transform the human condition, not by a quest for material gain.

Being an activist and a revolutionary, [just as being a politician and being politics] shouldn’t be a means of earning a living, a means of livelihoods, it should rather be a means of actualizing one’s conviction and realising one’s commitment.

Now therefore, if we feel strong enough about an issue, about a government policy, and about a government; if we are convinced that the situation is bad and requires to be changed; then our first duty is to take personal responsibility, and not to look for those we have derisively dismissed in the past as professional agitators, those whom we disparage as no-do-gooders, in other to outsource to them the actions of resistance which our anger and conviction informs us is the right thing to do.

The first responsibility of anyone who feels angered by a course of action, is to take personal responsibility; own the anger, and make a commitment to take action. The most effective action is that taken together with others, that is collective action, social action.

So, if you are aggrieved, if you feel angry, take responsibility, take action. Your first action is to reach out to others who feel your anger, and who feel the same way as you do. Reach out to them, and then together, take collective action – organise yourselves, enlighten yourselves about the issues, reach out to others and enlighten them about the issues, spread the message, organise and mobilise towards ever bigger collective action.

Make the effort to reach out to and organise every droplet of anger and grievance, and keep mobilising until the collection of droplets of anger become first a pool, then a stream, and then a mighty unstoppable river of resistance.

In this sense, resistance is like a coin with two dialectically connected and interacting sides – Personal responsibility arising from personal conviction; and taking collective action driven by shared conviction.

So, let us be clear, no one other than ourselves, no certain persons or certain organisations, without our own individual commitments, taking personal responsibility to call for, and be part of organising collective action with others, can help us to overcome the present situation and challenges.

Now, let us look at the issues at stake. Why this is another manifestation of failed class leadership and failure of class governance.

They say there is corruption in the oil and gas sector, and that is responsible for the crisis in the sector. They say that the under recovery which has been borne by the NNPC since the inception of this regime in 2015, has become unsustainable and that it is merely oiling corruption.

We agree with them that there is humongous and historic levels of corruption. But this isn’t the problem. This is merely the symptom of the problem. The real problem is failure of governance, and the crass incompetence and inability of a regime to properly govern.

Since 1999, the refineries have not once worked beyond 40% of installed capacity. And in point of fact by the January Uprising of 2012, combined capacity utilization of the four moribund refineries had dropped to less than 20% of installed capacity.

And since 2012, spanning the tenure of two different administrations, from two different ruling parties, combined capacity utilization has since dropped to near zero percent of installed capacity. This is the reason why we are the only OPEC member country that is reliant to the tune of more than 95% on imported refined petroleum products to meet domestic needs. It is why we are Africa’s largest producer and exporter of crude oil, while also being Africa’s largest importer of refined petroleum product; Much as we revel and regale in becoming net exporters of yam and cassava, while also remaining net importers of industrial and pharmaceutical starch, processed from the same yam and cassava!

Yet, since 1999, and particularly since the January Uprising of 2012 every regime from every faction of this congenitally corrupt and inherently incompetent ruling class have been unable and unwilling to fix the refineries and embark on a concerted policy of ensuring we achieve adequate domestic refining capacity to meet our needs; and these failure, despite the wastage of more than 420bn in combined Turnaround maintenance contracts since 1999.

As we have seen with the NDDC, despite the numerous turnaround maintenance contracts to fix the refineries, not a single refinery has been turned around, and capacity utilization of combined installed capacity of the refineries have remained below 10%.

Who were responsible for awarding these spurious contracts? Who were the contracts awarded to? Why have business continued as usual in the refineries? Why are their no members of management of the refineries, or contractors to the refineries being investigated or prosecuted? Why has no one ever been punished for these monumental failures and waste? And to be clear the buck stops with the various governments, and the various heads of the various governments; and in this case since 2015, the buck stops directly and indirectly at the Presidency, given that this particular president has also been the Substantive Minister of Petroleum since 2015.

Let us move to the next issue; what they call under recovery [this regime since 2015], and subsidy [previous regimes] is simply the difference between the pump price of refined petroleum products and the landing costs of the imported, but same refined petroleum products.

So, as long as we continue to import refined products, and we are incapable or unwilling refine at home; as long as the price of crude continue to rise due to more favourable conditions for its sale and utilization; and as long as we continue to float the value of the Naira against the dollar, then the tendency is that the landing cost of petroleum products will keep rising. The implication of this is that as the global economy continues to open up and recover from the impact of the pandemic, the price of crude is likely going to continue to rise; the cost of purchasing crude, refining crude, and shipping the refined products will also continue to rise; and thus even if the value of the naira remains constant, the landing cost of the refined products will keep rising.

What this means is without government intervention in pricing to keep fuel affordable, and in the absence of domestic refining capacity, against the backdrop of complete dependence on importation of refined products, the pump price of PMS, AGO and Kerosene will continue to rise, and we may breach the N300 per liter very soon.

So, the question to ask is why have been unable or unwilling to achieve to adequate domestic refining capacity since 1999, but particularly since 2012, in the aftermath of the January Uprising of 2012?

They say there is a cabal? If any government complains about the activities of a cabal that it has no power or control over, despite all of the institutions and forces of state power and governance at its disposal, then such a government is a non-government. In fact, the implication of this is that the cabal is stronger than the government and all the institutions of state. The only valid and rational conclusion to draw will be that the government and the cabal, the ruling class and the cabal are one and the same, period!

And as to the argument about a subsidy on petrol being a subsidy on consumption, and thus not an incentive for economic development, the fallacy of such an argument in our context is very obvious. But the fallacious nature of the argument needs to be restated.

In Nigeria, with an economy powered by more than 50,000 MWs of electricity, out of which only about 5,000MWs comes from the national [public] grid, with more than 45,000MWs being Individually generated by individual citizens, households and businesses etc; through the use of generating plants of various sizes ranging from the I better pass my neighbour generator to the industrial plant; the implication is that for this economy, petrol, refined petroleum products, and in particular PMS [used by more than 80% of generators in use], and AGO [used by industrial plants]; refined petroleum products are a significant factor of production, not a factor of consumption. In fact, energy costs for households and businesses are a huge and significant component of the cost of doing business, and a significant contributant to the ever-rising cost of doing business and the ensuing attrition of the level of competitiveness of running businesses in Nigeria. That is one of the reasons we are losing our businesses competitiveness edge to neighbouring countries.

In our context therefore, where the available energy from the grid is less than 5,000MWs, where citizens, households and businesses have to generate on their own the balance of more than 45,000MWs needed to power this economy and the homes; where these power generating plants utilise refined petroleum products; and where the cost of these refined petroleum products is ever-rising, [and therefore cannot be calculated as a fixed cost, becoming a variable and unstable cost], becoming less and less affordable; and where these is combined with hike in the tariff of the available power from the grid; the resultant effect is one of unsustainable energy cost for businesses and households.

The end result is higher and ever higher and increasingly unaffordable cost of living, and cost of doing business, leading to increasing impoverisation of the citizens, collapse of businesses and livelihoods of the poor, and completely defeating aim of the goal of increasing the ease of doing business in Nigeria.

So once again, here you see the effect of increasingly mutually antagonistic nature of policies of the same government and of the same ruling class.

On the one hand you have a clear policy of improving the ease of doing business; on the other hand, your policy actions in other areas, in this instance in energy, is ensuring that the cost of doing business will keep rising, thus negating the push towards the ease of doing business.

Similarly, you have the policy of reducing poverty, enhancing livelihoods, and growing jobs; yet on the other hand your other policies are leading directly to higher and increasingly unaffordable cost of living, devastating livelihoods of the poor, and stimming job growth since businesses have to cover rising energy costs.

To be clear this policy thrusts are headed only in one direction, increasing poverty levels, and increasing hardships and burdens on the poor and middle classes.

It is obvious that this regime, and this ruling class of which the regime is a factional representative have lost any ideas about how to govern us effectively, how to rein in and tackle their own greed and light fingeredness, how to achieve national human and economic development and inclusive growth.

It is obvious that we are the only people who can make things right for us, who can compel the ruling class to do the needful, reverse itself, and punish the thieves in its own midst.

It is clear, that we have reached the point where we need to once again take our destiny into our own hands, and make a collective intrusion unto the historical stage, as we did in the January Uprising of 2012.

I was there, on the streets, actively, at that decisive historic turning point in 2012, a moment that signaled the end of the rule of one faction of the ruling class and the rise of another faction of the same ruling class; I was there again in 2016, when the honeymoon of the new regime had not yet waned; I am here now once again in 2020, and together with all of us, I will be there actively on the streets.

But this time we must organise, mobilise and strategise to ensure that the outcome this time will be in our own collective interest, and not just in the interest of varying combinations of different factions of the same ruling class.

What we are seeing, what is impacting us so greatly is the failure of a ruling class. The solution to our problems and existential challenges lies beyond and outside of this ruling class, and all of its factions. That is the lesson taught and continuously reaffirmed since the January Uprising of 2012.

So, rather than look for this or that person or organisation to come and act on our behalf, rather than seek a messiah to come and save us from this pestilence, let us all instead rise together, take personal responsibility, and organise and mobilise with conviction and commitment towards taking collective action – Together, each and everyone of us.

Opinion AddThis : Original Author : Jaye Gaskia Disable advertisements :
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Lawyer Knocks Nigeria Police For Moving Rape Case Against Kogi Commissioner To Abuja Court

Human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, has berated the Nigeria Police Force for moving a rape case against Mr Abdulmumuni Danga, Kogi State Commissioner for Water Resources, to a court in Abuja.

Danga, who raped a lady in Kogi State, is to be charged at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja Judicial Division, five months after the incident took place.

Effiong said the police were merely trying to sabotage the case by taking it to the Federal Capital Territory where the court lacks jurisdiction over the case.

The rights lawyer also said the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act 2015, under which the commissioner was to be prosecuted was only applicable to the FCT and not Kogi State where the crime took place.

He said, “ALERT: Is police deceiving the public, the victim or itself by filing this charge? The FCT High Court has no jurisdiction to try this case for the following reasons:

“Rape is a state offence and cannot be tried outside the locus criminis (the place where it was committed);

“The alleged sexual offences in this case as stated in counts one to seven of the charge were committed in Lokoja, Kogi State, and not in the FCT;

“The law under which the defendants are charged - Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act 2015 is only applicable to the FCT.

“Section 47 of the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act 2015 specifically states that "This Act applies only to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja".

"Nigerian courts are usually not seised of matters/cases that occur outside their territorial or geographical jurisdiction.”

Inibehe stated that the action of the police depicts the force as trying to sabotage the case.

He noted that the charges against Danga would amount to waste of public funds.

He, however, urged the police to explore prosecuting the matter under the Penal Code as he insisted that the police must ensure justice was given to the victim through diligent prosecution of the case.

He added, “I do not believe that the Legal Department at the Force Headquarters acted in error. I believe this is a deliberate sabotage.

“If police is not interested in prosecuting the commissioner and his accomplice, there's no point dissipating public funds on a trial at the FCT High Court in a charge that will eventually be struck-out on grounds of want of jurisdiction. The victim should be spared the stress.

“If the Attorney-General of Kogi State is not willing to prosecute, the police should go ahead and file a proper charge at the High Court of Kogi State under to the Penal Code.
“The Attorney-General can then decide whether to allow the police to prosecute or discontinue the case.

“Nobody is above the law. We have to halt the culture of impunity in this country.

“The charges and allegations against Mr Abdulmumuni Danga and his accomplice are serious and should be prosecuted with vigour and diligence. The victim of the dastardly crimes deserves justice.”

SaharaReporters had published that the police will prosecute the case on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Danga was charged on seven counts bothering on rape to brutality, coercion, torture, falsifying of documents and threatening medical officer to forge test result.

He is facing the charges for assaulting and raping a lady named Elizabeth over a Facebook post.

The victim had in a post on her Facebook wall urged the commissioner to assist his kid sister and other members of his family financially.

Speaking with SaharaReporters, Elizabeth said she decided to make the Facebook post following series of complaints by the commissioner’s sister to her.

The post did not go down well with the commissioner, who hired thugs to seize Elizabeth from her home in Lokoja with her three-year-old son.

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Lawyer Knocks Nigeria Police For Moving Rape Case Against Kogi Commissioner To Abuja Court

Human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, has berated the Nigeria Police Force for moving a rape case against Mr Abdulmumuni Danga, Kogi State Commissioner for Water Resources, to a court in Abuja.

Danga, who raped a lady in Kogi State, is to be charged at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja Judicial Division, five months after the incident took place.

Effiong said the police were merely trying to sabotage the case by taking it to the Federal Capital Territory where the court lacks jurisdiction over the case.