239 Stranded Nigerians Return From Libya Due To Unfavorable Condition. Photos

About 239 stranded Nigerians were on Tuesday, November 28, returned to Nigeria after being evacuated from Libya. The returnees comprising men, women, pregnant girls and children – arrived the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos at about 9:15pm as they were received by officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI).

A total of 3,480 young Nigerians, mostly girls, were returned from Libya in the last 10 months, the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCRMI) has confirmed.

Bomber To Bomber! Patience Jonathan's Probe: Reps’ Orders Magu’s Arrest For Shunning Summons

The House of Reps Committee on Public Petitions on Wednesday ordered an arrest warrant against the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. Ibrahim Magu.

He is to be brought before the committee on November 7 to answer questions in connection with a petition the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience, sent to the House.

She had petitioned the House, alleging harassment of her person and firms linked to her associates by the EFCC, the Federal Inland Revenue Service and the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency.
She also told the House that her personal bank accounts and those of the firms had been frozen.

However, the panel, which is chaired by a member from Abia State, Mr. Uzoma Nkem-Abonta, said on Wednesday that Magu had shunned “several invitations” to appear in connection with the matter.

The NDLEA and FIRS had been appearing before the panel to respond to the petition.

The matter had earlier been adjourned till Wednesday (yesterday), but again, Magu did not turn up and the EFCC sent no representations to the session.

After a motion on arrest warrant moved by Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts, Kingsley Chinda, the panel passed a resolution for Magu’s arrest.

Ruling, Nkem-Abonta stated, “The absence of the EFCC is making our work difficult. We are not against the EFCC doing its work but they have to comply with the law. With no counter motion, the motion on arrest warrant is hereby sustained.”

The committee also ordered all the companies linked to Jonathan’s wife to submit their statements of audited accounts to the FIRS within two weeks.

The panel explained that this was to afford the FIRS the opportunity to assess them for tax payment and ascertain the level of tax compliance since they started operations.

FIRS had in a submission to the committee, stated that the reason it kept watch over the activities of the companies was to verify their tax compliance.

On its part, FIRS was directed to conclude the verification within two weeks from the date of receiving the audited accounts from the companies and produce a report.

The committee had also summoned eight banks over the freezing of the accounts of Patience and her companies by the EFCC.

The committee clarified that it directive to “unfreeze” Patience’s accounts was strictly for those accounts that were not backed by a court order or a written instruction from the EFCC.

Appoint Credible Petroleum Minister - Sani Shehu to President Buhari

Looks like the weeks ahead will be tough. Senator Shehu Sani (Kaduna Central) has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to remove himself as the Minister of Petroleum Resources and appoint a Minister that can be accountable for the nation’s oil industry.
Sani in a statement on Thursday opined that Pres Buhari had limited time to oversee the oil industry and insisted that appointing a credible minister would douse the tension in the oil industry.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, had written a petition to President Buhari, alleging acts of insubordination and humiliation by the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Maikanti Baru.

The Senate had also set up a panel to probe Baru, over allegations made against him.

“President Buhari should disengage from being a Petroleum Minister and appoint a substantive minister whom the nation can hold accountable to the happenings in the nation oil industry.

“The President position as a minister can drag him into issues in the oil sector of which he has limited time to attend to. A broom immersed in oil cannot sweep clean,” the senate said.

WAR IN TARABA AS Mama Taraba & The APC Clash - Details

Written by Reuben Abati
Mama Taraba is Senator Aisha Alhassan, the current Minister of Women Affairs in the Muhammadu Buhari cabinet, and arguably the most influential female politician in Taraba state today.

She did something shocking and unusual in Nigerian politics during the last Eid-el-Kabir holidays. While paying homage to former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, she addressed him as follows: “Your Excellency, our father and our President by the grace of God, come 2019…”

Members of the ruling APC have been on a warpath with her since then...
They have labeled Mama Taraba a traitor, and an ingrate and have even called for her immediate sack, disgrace, humiliation and outright dismissal for “anti-party activities”.


What is not clear is how a serving Minister expressing an opinion amounts to “an anti-party activity.” Atiku whom she visited is a member and one of the leaders of the APC, and she has since made it clear, not only in private but through the BBC, that she regards Atiku as her political godfather and mentor, and should he decide to run for President in 2019, she will support him, not Buhari.

She does not deserve the hate speeches she is getting from the Buhari apologists. If Kaduna Governor Nasir el-Rufai is to be believed, Mama Taraba has never regarded President Buhari as her political mentor. He was not even her choice as a presidential candidate in the 2015 APC primaries. She voted for her mentor, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who contested against the incumbent President at the time.

She deserves high marks for her consistency, honesty, and courage. Any close watcher of Nigerian politics can easily appreciate the gravity of the risk that she has taken. It is that kind of risk that could attract a punishment worse than dismissal from the Cabinet. In the estimation of those who are asking for her to be punished by both the ruling party and the President, Mama Taraba has crossed certain “red lines”.

In the first place, she did not go to Daura to pay homage to the President, instead, she went to Adamawa to visit former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, a man who has declared an interest in sending President Buhari out of Aso Villa. In Nigeria’s unwritten manual of politics and governance, political appointees are not to be seen with those who are considered enemies or rivals of the ruler. Mama Taraba not only crossed that line, she went many steps further.

It is also the rule in Nigerian politics that political appointees are expected to sing the praise of their bosses in public all the time, and should they have any misgivings they can only express those misgivings privately. The problem this has created is that most political appointees are as subservient as civil servants. They don’t express independent opinions as they should, not to talk of misgivings. They just act as directed. The President or the Governor is considered the wisest man exercising a divine mandate that no man should question.

The corridor of power in Nigeria is littered with sycophants. In one state, for example, the new Speaker of the State House of Assembly was asked if the legislature under his watch would avoid the temptation of becoming the Governor’s rubber stamp. The fellow reportedly responded: “I tell you, this House of Assembly will not only be the Governor’s rubber stamp, we will be his Seal!”

Mama Taraba has chosen to be different. Those who are criticising her are not stupid either, but it is just so convenient for them to play the role of sycophants and court jesters. They know when Mama Taraba says President Buhari should not run in 2019, what she is really saying is that she does not consider him fit enough for that office. She is more or less passing a vote of no confidence in the President. She is by the same token advertising Atiku Abubakar as a better person. The crabs in the corridor of power have amplified these suggestions to the level of blasphemy.

But the truth is that there are many of them who probably hold the same opinion, who is secretly working against the Buhari Presidency, but they would never admit doing so publicly. These green snakes under the green grass, are the hidden saboteurs, the Judases President Buhari must beware of.

They are like the members of the Akintola group in the First Republic in the then Western Region. In the fight for political supremacy between Samuel Ladoke Akintola, who would later cross to the NNDP (or Der-mor as the people called it) and Chief Obafemi Awolowo of the Action Group, many supporters of the former openly supported Awolowo, but they were loyal to Akintola and the NNDP. There was even a famous song on this: “Bi o ri owo mi, o o ri inu mi, Demo ni mo wa.”

The elevation of perfidy into a strategy started long ago in Nigerian politics. In this instance, Mama Taraba has boldly called the bluff of her adversaries: she says she is ready to quit the Cabinet if she is asked to leave. How many of her colleagues feel the same way but too scared to say so?

With Aisha Alhassan, President Buhari knows where he stands. It is better for him that this is so. Ordinarily, Mama Taraba should support him. In 2015, she contested for the Gubernatorial position in Taraba state on the platform of the All Progressives Congress and lost. She petitioned the State Election Tribunal and won, but this victory at the Tribunal which would have made her the first elected female Governor in Nigeria was later upturned by the Appeal and Supreme Courts.

By bringing her into his Cabinet, President Buhari rehabilitated her. He was advised against offering her the position then because she was a known Atiku person. President Buhari needs not regret the choice he has made. His appointment of non-Buhari persons into his Cabinet, including persons who refused to leave the PDP and join the APC, and are still in the PDP or other parties, is an indication of his own largeness of heart and statesmanship.

He should be glad that this particular Minister has spoken honestly. At least, he now knows that he cannot rely on her political structures in Taraba state and wherever else she wields influence. In case he plans to run in 2019, Mama Taraba has already served him an early notice – he would have to build his political machinery in that state around someone else. Her critics insist that she should on her own resign and go back to her Atiku.

This raises the question of the nature of loyalty in politics. What determines loyalty? There is a lot of obsession with loyalty or disloyalty in Nigerian politics. Did Aisha Alhassan take an oath of office to serve Buhari or the Federal Republic of Nigeria? What we know is that political leaders in Africa place loyalty to themselves above loyalty to the state. Which is why our security and law enforcement agencies are so mercurial; they are ever so busy protecting the political interests of the incumbent, and will change should the incumbent change, rather than focusing on their core mandates. If Mama Taraba is efficient in the discharge of her duties as Minister, President Buhari should ignore those who are asking him to sack her.

What cannot be ignored though, is that the ruling APC is truly and terribly in crisis. The subsequent attacks on Alhaji Atiku Abubakar by the pro-Buhari wing of the APC, following his declaration that he was used and dumped by the President further, confirms the depth of this internal turmoil. But was Atiku really used and dumped, or to use his word, “sidelined?” He says: “I was sidelined, I have no relationship with the government. I’ve not been contacted even once to comment on anything and in turn, I maintained my distance. They used our money and influence to get to where they are but three years down the lane, this is where we are.” These are strong words.

The bitterness in Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s tone touches the heart. But can he really claim that he has been sidelined when Mama Taraba, his loyalist and at least one or two others from his political camp are playing key roles in the Buhari government? Could they have gone to work for Buhari without his “permission” or knowledge? The side-talk that they got the job on their own merit is opaque given the clientelist character of political proximity in African democracies.

With Mama Taraba’s statement, Atiku’s protest, and the epigrammatic statement by Senator Shehu Sani about Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, that was thrown in, the support base for President Buhari’s likely shot at a second term in office appears shaky.

Senator Sani confirms this when he says: “The Lion Monarch should reach out to the aggrieved but silent Lagoon Lion so that he doesn’t explode like the Hippo. The Lagoon Lion controls waters that can drown… The disloyal Cobra who spat venom before you and the friendly Viper who sprayed venom behind you are all snakes. In comparison the former is of lesser evil than the latter.”

In straightforward English, Shehu Sani is saying President Buhari is likely to drown politically if he does not pay homage to “the silent Lagoon Lion.”

The tragedy of the APC is that a party that came to power as a party of change-agents has in all of two years and four months become a party of lions, hyenas, jackals, snakes, and rats. Those who have been using these animal kingdom references so freely are party insiders who obviously know the circumstances of their own party. What is seen is an increasingly atomistic political party, looking hubristic-ally, like the dominant party it displaced. It is worse than the party leaders are now speaking in tongues.

In a statement issued on September 25, 2016, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu sounded a note of warning asking for an urgent reform of the party. He was ignored. As at this moment, the APC is yet to hold a national convention; it has no Board of Trustees. Internal party processes have broken down. It should also be recalled that when Senator Bukola Saraki made the moves that saw him emerge as Senate President of the 8th National Assembly in 2015, the first and the only prominent party leader he visited was Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

It was a very sensitive move in the APC chess game – the anti-Saraki and anti-Atiku groups within the party are still fuming two years later! In the 2015 election, President Buhari got close to 2 million votes from Kano state. Today, Kano is divided against his Presidency. During the last Sallah, supporters of the incumbent Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, and loyalists of the former Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso turned the prayer ground into a battle-field, using machetes freely on a Holy day! Ganduje is pro-Buhari. Kwankwaso nurses a Presidential ambition.

The big threat to the Buhari Presidency is not the likes of Aisha Alhassan, who speak their minds, but the possible union of the lions, snakes, the hyenas and the rats, hiding in dark corners, waiting to take their pounds of flesh from the party and the Buhari Presidency.

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FG Moves To Inject Additional Power To National Grid

The National Council on Privatisation (NCP), which is chaired by the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, has approved the commencement of the privatisation of Afam Power plants 1-5 to inject additional power into the national grid and improve electricity nationwide.
The Council also approved the pursuit of an out-of-court settlement involving the privatisation of Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON).

The move aims to resolve the lingering dispute between the Federal Government, BFIG and United Company RUSAL through the mediation of the Secretariat with the active collaboration of the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development.

The council advised that “the mediation efforts should take a holistic view of the entire sector and the overriding national interests to jumpstart industrial development through the steel sector in arriving at a resolution on the matter.”

At the meeting, under the chairmanship of Prof. Osinbajo, SAN, the council reviewed the proposals presented by its Secretariat, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) for the reform and restructuring of various sectors of the economy.

The council also approved the immediate revocation of the concession of the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex, and the immediate commencement of a fresh privatisation of Yola Electricity Distribution Company.

These approvals were aimed at giving traction to key infrastructure facilities in the country that are presently under concessions but have been adjudged to be performing sub-optimally.

Wike, Fayose & FFK Are Silent About The Latest Expose On Ikoyi Billions- Read Why

Following EFCC discovery and recovery of about $43m from a private apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos, tongues started wagging as to the identity of the owner or owners in view of other discoveries without ownership in Kaduna airport, Legico shopping mall, Balogun market, etc.

But before one could say Jack..., the trio of Governors Nyesom Wike, Ayo Fayose and Femi Fani Kayode jumped into the fray in a well orchestrated manner and chorused that the cash belonged to Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, former Rivers state governor and minister for transportation, even without producing any fact to back up their allegations rationally and legally.

In fact, governor Nyesom Wike in borrowing a leaf from his brother in utterances and conduct, party associate and friend governor Ayo Fayose, was quoted as threatening that the Federal government will not know peace until the recovered Ikoyi funds is repatriated to the coffers of the Rivers state government which he insisted against logic, rationality, and facts as the owner of the funds.

Despite the NIA DG coming forward to claim ownership of the money as belonging to his agency as funds approved by immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan for some covert operations, Nigerians were very doubtful because of the indisputable fact that our environment is one in which truth is in short supply privately and publicly, coupled with the fact that the money was recovered from a private residential apartment and not from any of the offices of the NIA which was claiming ownership.

However, in the midst of the brouhaha over the Ikoyigate, public interest in the matter increased the more rather than abate because of the repeated abuse of public trust by those saddled with the responsibility and the resolve of the people that it must no longer be business as usual in this era and administration of change.

With the increased public consciousness to get to the root of the Ikoyigate, came the disclosure of the names of the owners and occupiers of the apartments in the building including the one from which the money was recovered, which was listed as being occupied by the DG NIA and his wife.

Consequently, the publications of the names of the occupiers of the apartments in the building exposed the barefaced malicious blackmail and campaign of calumny by the trio of Wike, Fayose and FFK as the arrowheads, acting out a well orchestrated script to malign the name of Mr. Rotimi Amaechi at all cost because of political differences and to distract Nigerians from the substance of Ikoyigate, which is a testimonial of how the administration of former President Jonathan abused public trust and undermined national security which they seem to have knowledge of.

Unfortunately, since the latest action of the Federal government of suspending the SGF and DG NIA by constituting a 3 man investigative committee headed by Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo to determine the appropriateness of the Ikoyigate funds and report back in 2 weeks, the conspiratorial silence of the trio of Wike, Fayose and FFK has exposed them as hatchet men with intentions which is at variance with public good.

As we await the outcome of the investigative panel that we are hopeful in, one can only enjoin Nigerians to be patient and expect that justice will be served and refuse to be distracted and confused by anti-democratic agents on the prowl.

This post was originally written by - Nelson Ekujumi, a public analyst writes from Lagos