Biafra: It will be a sorry day for Nigeria if anything happens to Kanu‎ – Col. Joe Achuzia

Prominent ex-Biafra warlord and elder statesman, Col. Joe Achuzia, rtd, has declared that it would be a sorry day for Nigeria if anything happens to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

Kanu was charged with treasonable felony and has been detained in Kuje prison for over one year.

While insisting on Kanu’s unconditional release, Achuzia noted that the IPOB leader had done nothing and had the right to be free.

He told Sun, “Why we say unconditionally is that there should be no condition attached to his release, he has the right to be freed under the Nigerian law, and a competent court of law has already asked several times that he should be released.

“This issue of Kanu is very intriguing. If something happens to him while in custody, the government would have created a matter and an indelible black mark.

“He should be released unconditionally and given the opportunity to defend himself. If something should happen, it will be a sorry day for the country.”

Singer, Davido denies having 4-year-old child with another woman

Nigerian singer, Davido, has denied having a 4-year-old child with another woman in Ibadan.

Recall that during the week, reports emerged that the Omo Baba Lowo had another baby with an Ibadan-based lady, apart from his baby-mama Imade.

It was reported that the singer got the lady pregnant in 2013, but told her to keep it.

Reacting to the report on his twitter handle, @iam-Davido, he said the baby does not belong to him.

He wrote, “2 years ago person wey U never see your life, bring pikin say nah ur own, u take paternity test it came out negative.

“Upon finding out the test results were negative Out of pity we still give dem money. Years later dem no gree say nah my own. chai money good.

2019: Who Can Stop Atiku?

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has been a guest of many prominent political, traditional and religious leaders across the country in the past few weeks.Iyobosa Uwugiaren examines the strategic, political moves

Even the ailing President Muhammadu Buhari knew long time ago that the former Vice-President and one of the founders of All Progressive Congress (APC), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, is a man to watch out for in the emerging political calculations, for 2019 presidential election. And apparently aware of his intimidating political structures across the nation, those with similar tall ambition have consistently built wedges on his way.

But trust him: Atiku has continued to walk along the blustery, stormy political pathway.

A senior presidential aide recently told THISDAY how at the early days of the present administration—-in 2015, the former Vice-President approached Buhari with ‘’a solid economic blueprint’’—detailing how the country could immediately absolved the shock of the fall of oil price in the global market—that has consistently threatened the economy of Nigeria in the last one year. Oil accounts for about 95 per cent of the nation’s foreign earnings, and by extension, the livewire of the nation’s economy.

Atiku was said to have comprehensively came up with a plan—how the administration could create a ‘’competitive market’’ that will attract the big foreign investment players into the country—assurances that their proposed billions of dollars investments in the country would be saved.

‘’Atiku’s economic blueprint, which contains detail policies and implementation strategies was handed over to the President. And President Muhammadu Buhari was initially pleased with the suggestion’’, the presidency source added.

‘’But few weeks later, some political hawks around the president strongly advised him not to allow Atiku Abubakar to use his indirect means to bring into country his billions of dollars. The fear of these political hawks was that the former Vice-President will use the huge fund to fight him in the 2019 presidential election.’’

The result of that advice was what the former Vice-President (Africa) of The World Bank, Dr. Obey Ezekwesilse, described as  ‘’opaque, archaic and ambiguous foreign exchange rate policy’’ that have compounded the nation’s economic recession.

The assertion of the source is that it was the fear of Atiku that forced Buhari to adopt such very devastating economic policy.

In spite of the fear of Atiku, many political analysts said that the on-going political conversations and calculations are pointing to fact the Adamawa born politician will be part of the strong political choices Nigerians would have to make in 2019.

Like the governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-rufai noted recently—in his spiteful statement, the former Vice-President has long started his presidential campaign, ahead of the 2019.

To be sure, in the last few months, Atiku has been a special guest of many prominent politicians, traditional rulers, religious and influential groups across the nation, in what an insider described as ‘’strategic political moves’’ to reactivate his political structures across the country.

The insiders told THISDAY that already, some very powerful political forces and groups, including many loyalists of Senate President Bukola Saraki; former Head of States General Ibrahim Babangida; Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, and groups of both former and serving governors are in different secret political conversations with Atiku, who is reputed to have sauntered into the fourth republic with huge measured quantity of democratic credentials.

THISDAY gathered that the calculation is based on the conspicuous signs that the ailing President Buhari will not re-contest and the need for the core north to present a formidable candidate who will be acceptable to the six geo-political zones, taking into consideration the burning ethno-religious and political question in the country.

For many of his followers, Atiku has established himself as a democrat immediately he left the public service and became a political devotee of late Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, an acclaimed great political tactician that flounced the country like a hurricane.

His political history is legendary: a politician, businessman and philanthropist, he was born on November 25, 1946, and in the beginning of his national political career, served as the second elected Vice-President from 1999 to 2007—-under the umbrella of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), with President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Atiku worked in the Nigeria Customs Service for 24 years, rising to become the Deputy-Comptroller-General. He retired in 1989 and took up full-time business and politics. He ran for the office of Governor in the Gongola State (now Adamawa and Taraba States) in 1991; and for the presidency in 1993, coming third after MKO Abiola and Babagana Kingibe in the disbanded Social Democratic Party (SDP) primaries.

In 1998 he contested and won the Governor of Adamawa State. And while still governor-elect he was picked by the PDP Presidential candidate Olusegun Obasanjo as his running mate. They went into the election and won in 1999.

As documented by historian, Atiku’s second term as Vice-President was characterised by a squally relationship with Obasanjo. His attempt to succeed Obasanjo did not receive the latter’s support, and it took the judgement of the Supreme Court to allow him to contest in 2007—-after he was initially disqualified by the Independent National Electoral Commission over an alleged financial misconduct by a ‘’discredited’’ investigating panel set up by Obasanjo.

The apex court later ordered the electoral commission to restore Atiku’s name onto the presidential ballot and he ran on the platform of the Action Congress, having quit the PDP on account of his issues with Obasanjo. Expectedly, he lost the election, coming third after late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Muhammadu Buhari of the then All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).

As a ‘’consummated’’ businessman, Atiku is a co-founder of Intels—-an oil servicing business with wide-ranging operations across the country and outside the country. He is also the founder of Adama Beverages Limited, and the American University of Nigeria (AUN), both in Yola, the Adamawa state capital.

Born to an itinerant Fulani trader and farmer Garba Abubakar, the former Vice-President was said to have started out in the real estate business during his early days as a Customs Officer. History has it that in 1974 he applied for and received a N31,000 loan to build his first house in Yola, which he put up for rent. From proceeds of the rent he was reportedly to have purchased another plot, and built a second house. He was said to have continued that way, building a considerable range of property in Yola.

Apparently very go-getting in investment, he was said to have later moved into agriculture, acquiring 2,500 hectares of land near Yola to start a maize and cotton farm. The business fell on hard times and closed in 1986. “My first foray into agriculture, in the 1980s, ended in failure,” he was quoted as saying.

Later venturing into trading, buying and selling truckloads of rice, flour and sugar, Atiku’s most important business move was to have come while he was a Customs Officer at the Apapa Ports. One Gabrielle Volpi, an Italian businessman in Nigeria, was said to have invited him to set up Nigeria Container Services (NICOTES), a logistics company operating within the Ports. Those who know him very well said that NICOTES provide immense wealth to Atiku.

Atiku’s first expedition into politics was in the early 1980s, when he worked behind-the-scenes on the governorship campaign of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, who at that time was managing director of the Nigeria Ports Authority. He canvassed for votes on behalf of Tukur, and also donated to the campaign. Towards the end of his Customs career, he met late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, who had been second-in-command of the military government that ruled Nigeria between 1976 and 1979. Atiku was drawn by Yar’Adua into the political meetings that were now happening regularly in Yar’Adua’s Lagos home.

In 1989 Atiku was elected a National Vice-Chairman of the Peoples Front of Nigeria, the political association led by Yar’Adua, to participate in the transition programme initiated by Babangida.

Atiku won a seat to represent his constituency at the 1989 Constituent Assembly, set up to decide a new constitution for Nigeria. The People’s Front was eventually denied registration by the government (none of the groups that applied was registered), and found a place within the Social Democratic Party, one of the two parties decreed into existence by the regime.

 Many of his followers have said time without numbers that a ‘’tested hand’’ like Atiku is surely needed to coordinate the proper integration of the youths into the economic mainstream.

‘’He is the highest individual employer of labour in Nigeria and a believer in excellence. The truth that cannot be dismissed is that among those jostling to convince Nigerians for their votes in 2019, only the Turaki has experience in job creation. This is the choice Nigerian must make in 2019 without sentiment and pandering to the propaganda of surrogates of past failures’’, one of his followers said.

‘’The fragility of our mutual existence as a country cannot be over exaggerated. As a matter of fact, the erosion of our cultural, religious and social commonalities is an ever constant feature of the past two decades.

‘’There is need to undertake enormous reintegration of all divergent groups into a united country. Nobody can do it better than Atiku. He is a proven man of immense conviction and political muscles to navigate us to the destination of unity.’’

The argument is that Buhari came at a time he was needed to abridge the nation’s drift towards excessive insecurity and anarchy, and that Atiku is the man to build the country for the contentment and richness of all citizens of Nigeria.

But for sure, Atiku has Buhari’s gang and treacherous Obasanjo to battle with.

Petrol: NNPC Invites DSS, EFCC to Recover N11bn from Capital Oil

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday, stated that it would take full measures, including inviting the Department of State Security (DSS) and Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) to recover about N11 billion worth of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) which it stored in the facilities of Capital Oil and Gas Limited, under a throughput arrangement, but which was allegedly sold without its permission by the firm.

But in a swift reaction, the Group Managing Director of Capital Oil and Gas Limited, Ifeanyi Uba told THISDAY last night that the NNPC allegation was misleading and mischievous and that the firm failed to tell the public that it also owed Capital Oil billions of Naira from their mutual business transactions.

The corporation stated in a statement from its Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, in Abuja, that several committees, including an investigative committee had been set up to amongst other issues, identify external and internal parties to the illegal deal, as well as another to review its policy and guidelines for engaging in products through-put arrangements with third parties.

The review committee, it added would also establish control measures that could help avert similar incident in the future.

The statement explained that Mr. Henry Ikem-Obih, who is NNPC’s Chief Operating Officer, Downstream, gave details of how the infraction was discovered by it earlier in the year when NNPC had need to access the over 100 million litres of petrol stored at the facility of Capital Oil and Gas for NNPC Retail.

Ikem-Obih, according to the statement said: “We instructed the Nigerian Products Marketing Company (NPMC) a subsidiary of NNPC, to send additional trucks to those locations to move products for distribution aimed at meeting a supply shortfall we discovered in the market, but after days of not being able to access the terminals, we had to take a decision as NNPC management to invite auditors and inspectors to go and do a physical check on the inventories.”

He noted that the auditor’s visit revealed that there was no molecule of product for the NNPC to evacuate, noting that the infraction by Capital Oil was a clear violation of existing through-put contract which prohibits the owners of the facilities from tampering with the volumes in their custody without express permission of NNPC.

Ikem-Obih further explained that the NNPC was mute over the infraction until the Senate uncovered it, but that it had informed relevant agencies of the government about the development.

He said so far, not much progress had been achieved with Capital Oil Gas which was yet to return 82 million litres of petrol, valued at N11 billion, out of over 100 million litres which it took.

He said the two committees set up would evaluate the roles played by some of its staff in the illegal product evacuation and review its entire through-put policy in order to align it with global best practices.

As part of efforts to forestall a repeat of similar occurrence in the future, Ikem-Obih stated that a disciplinary committee was already investigating the level of involvement of its staff with a view to applying appropriate sanctions as a deterrence measure.

On possible punitive measures to be meted out to culpable staff and erring firms, he also said it would be better to allow the committees decide that in line with existing laws and regulations.

He also added that the product diversion would not affect the corporation petrol supply schedule, adding that the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr Maikanti Baru, had approved an increase in importation of petrol to make up for the shortfall.

But the GMD of Capital Oil insisted that it is normal for parties in businesses to owe each other in business relationship and that if reconciliation is carried out with NNPC, the firm will find out that there may be very little or nothing for Capital Oil to pay them.

Uba buttressed his point by alleging that in the last four months, the NNPC had borrowed products running into millions of litres from Capital Oil.

“Ask the NNPC if they do not also owe Capital Oil. They should stop trying to use the media to kill me. We have an ongoing relationship and we need to sit down and reconcile our accounts,” remarked the Capital Oil boss.

2019: Ganduje targets kwankwaso’s support base

There is no doubt that the dynamics of 2019 politics has started in Kano State in spite of the fact that the contest is about two years away. And in this light, many cards are already on the table. One of such cards is the notion of “Four- Plus- Four”, which represents a metaphor for the incumbent administration of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje to remain in office beyond 2019.

Proponents of this notion, who are largely among the ruling political elite, are not unmindful of the plurality of political values in the state and the quality of opposition against their aspiration.

They recognize that unlike in 2015, when they rode on an easy and largely uncontested ride to the Government House in the state, the 2019 scenario presents a different, dense and unpredictable cast.

They acknowledged the rivalry poised by the Kwakwassiyya tendency and the potency and virility of the threat.

Yet, they have an abiding faith in their performance and in their ability to overcome the circumstances, no matter the potency of their adversaries and their historical grip on the politics of the state.

In this light, they are working on a couple of strategies to scale over whatever opposition that may come their way in the quest to accomplish and objectify the notion of “Four Plus Four”.

Observers have since recognized a deliberate culture of feminism in the state. This experience, which is gaining popularity by the day, invariably scales up the position of women, and makes them a vital component of the ‘Gandujain’ politics.

While not disregarding any other group in the state, the Ganduje administration has undoubtedly sought the heart of women in the state, lobbied them in a way that no previous administration had done in the state.

To be fair, the role of women in Kano politics has never been lost to imagination. It is true that right from the days of political matriarchs such as Hajia Gambo Sawaba, Hajia Asabe Reza, Hajia Rabi Mato and up to the present times of Hajia Najatu Ibrahim and Hajia Baraka Sani, Kano women have been heroines in their own political rights. They have been a voice that has melted into the huge bellies of the famed political radicalism of the ancient and historical city.

With their huge numerical value, estimated in millions and far higher in number than their male counterparts, whoever wins their hearts, no doubt wins the day.  That is apart from the fact that they play a strategic role as opinion moulders in their respective families, swinging political options in favour of their preferred candidates in some ways.

This may have informed the position of the administration to reserve a special place for them in the scheme of things in the state today.  The administration of Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has not been pretentious about its feminist posturing.

From inception, it has associated with them, a result of which it appointed no fewer than three women Commissioners into the state executive council. This is aside the fact that the administration had thought it wise to appoint several women as Special Advisers, Senior Special Assistants and Special Assistants in the state.

Recently, there has been an explosion of women empowerment initiatives and programmes in the state. A few are worth emphasizing. Not too long, the state government said it was ready to offer employment to over 1000 women National Certificate of Education(NCE) graduates, who would teach in the various public schools in the state.

To match words with action, the governor, few days ago, directed these applicants to proceed to their respective local government areas for verification ahead of their enlistment.

But that is not all. Something previously unthinkable in a conservative setting as Kano is about to happen. The government has indicated its resolve to send out a set of youthful women for training in auto mechanics as well as in its related areas. According to the governor, the beneficiaries would be trained alongside their male counterparts at Peugeot Automobile Nigeria Training Center in Kaduna.

The governor explained that the training was part of his administration’s strategies to expose the women to requisite skills necessary for them to be self -employed, and be in a position to afford a comfortable lifestyle for themselves and their families.

He recalled that about two weeks ago, the state government recruited many female persons among its new tax officers adding that his administration has initiated various empowerment programmes for various categories of women in the state since he assumed office.

“Women empowerment helps women to stand on their own, become independent and also to earn for their family which stimulates the economy”, he stated.

According to the governor, “to empower a woman means to reduce poverty. Sometimes, the money earned by the husband is not sufficient to meet the demands of the family. The added earnings of women help the family to address the issue of poverty”.

One of such women empowerment initiatives in the state was promoted by a philanthropist, Hajiya Binta Sani Danmaijuju. It was however supported by the state government. Participants said that it afforded over 500 of them an opportunity to be trained for three weeks on bed sheet making, beads and jewelry design, hair dressing, cosmetics making, photography, soap making and video coverage, among others.

A very remarkable instance of this feminization in the politics of the administration is the recently held mass wedding of a total of 1520 couples in the state. The exercise has been lauded in the state and beyond as a commendable religious effort designed  to enhance the family institution and to reduce the incidence of unmarried, divorced and widowed women, whose numbers have been climbing exponentially in the recent time in the state.

Unlike in the past exercise, the present ceremony of mass wedding in the state  was decentralized and held across the 44 local government areas of the state, capturing, not just lonely widows and divorcees, but  also young single women.

On that lovely Sunday, in hundreds of locations and worship centers in the 44 local government areas of Kano State, several Islamic clerics joined the couples together according to Islamic rites and in the presence of their district heads, their family members and well wishers while the government paid their dowry of N20, 000 as well as donated various home items, namely bedding, carpets, wardrobes, mirrors and cooking utensils to them.

While Governor Ganduje supervised the solemnization at the Kano Central Mosque, his deputy, Professor Hafiz Abubakar oversaw the exercise at Sheikh Mohammadu Rabiu Mosque, Goron -Dutse, while the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Hon Kabiru Rirum was at the Murtala Mohammadu Mosque.  Several top government functionaries were dispatched to the various local communities to grace the wedding of the couples

Speaking at an enlightenment ceremony held at Coronation Hall, the governor counseled the new couples to build a family based on love.

The Governor, who frowned on the spiraling rate of divorce in the state, advised that marriage was not a master -servant relationship, but one where the couple respects each other and strives to make their home a receptive place.

“We call on wives to be patient with your husbands, to respect your families so that you create receptive families for your husbands and children, ” he stated.

The thinking in many quarters is that all these could not have been mere accidents of policy making. Many see in it a deliberate, conscious quest to improve the lives of women in the state and to win their friendship.

A policy consultant and leading member of the civil society groups in Kano, Mr Daniel Kwen while discussing the matter with Saturday Sun opined that, “Issues of feminism in Ganduje’s  politics is quite instructive.”

He added, “Sustained empowerment of particular targeted group, especially large groups such as women and the above 18 year- old girls in Kano State, could not have been anything but a political masterstroke given their huge population.

“Studies have shown that two things are likely to happen when and where this kind of empowerment and political seduction are taking place.

“The first is that the beneficiaries grow in respect of their economic lifestyles, and what that means is that in the nearest future, they would begin to have clear political and economic choices. It is certainly not going to be the same very docile, non- confident and excluded set which they were when they could barely feed or survive.” he stated.

He added: “The next possible outcome is the beneficiaries become directly indebted to the personality or personalities through which they attained their elevated status. In this case, they would single out the character and not the state, as the harbinger of their fortunes and it is only natural that they show some kind of love and respect for such a person in return for scaling up their opportunities.

“Yes, I want to agree that there is a strong relationship between empowerment and future political outcomes- where there is a sustained relationship. The beneficiaries would surely come in handy in a heavily contested political atmosphere like the one we predict would happen in Kano come 2019.”

Speaking also to Saturday Sun on the development,  Mallam Abubakar Bello who is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state held that, “it is true the government is focusing on women, supporting them and the families in the state, but I doubt if he is playing politics. I think that the government is just alive to its responsibilities to all segments of the state.”

He was however certain that the women of Kano State would stand by the governor of the state in the coming days given that in the history of Kano State, it has never been this good for Kano women..