Sahara Reporters Latest News Saturday 27th April 2019
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 27/04/19
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target=_blank>Gunmen Kidnap Two Senior Shell Workers In Rivers, Kill Their Police Escorts
Two oil workers of Shell Nigeria have been kidnapped in Rivers State, with the police escorts attached to them killed.
It was gathered that the incident happened on Thursday evening along the Ahoada-Ndele-Rumuji-Emohua axis of the East-West road, Rivers State.
Both victims of the kidnap were said to be senior staff members of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), and they were returning from an official trip to neighbouring Bayelsa State when the incident happened.
Saharareporters had earlier reported how the driver of a 30-seater coaster bus was shot dead while all the passengers were abducted on the same Emohua axis of the East-West road, Rivers State.
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target=_blank>Lagos Pardons 20 Death-Row Inmates, Frees 14 Others Who Had Spent Over 20 Years In Prison
The Lagos State Government has ordered the immediate freedom of 14 inmates while 20 who were sentenced to death were pardoned.
According to Adeniji Kazeem, Lagos State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, those released have been imprisoned for over 20 years and have been studied by a council set up by the state government.
While handing over the release notes to the prison authorities, Kazeem said the development was hinged on the constitutional power of the Governor to pardon inmates.
He explained that the Governor set up an advisory council to consider cases of the inmates.
Kazeem said: “Prerogative of Mercy is a right recognised under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
“Section 212(2) of the Constitution provides that the powers conferred on the Governor under Section 212(1) shall be exercised by him after consultation with the Advisory Council of the State on the Prerogative of Mercy as may be established by the Law of the State.”
The commissioner added that those pardoned “have been reformed and ready for reintegration into the society”. He also urged the pardoned inmates to be of good conduct.
Professor Oyelowo Oyewo, Chairman of the Council, stated that the move was a “way of decongesting the prison”.
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target=_blank>Ekiti Hunters Arrest Two Of The Herdsmen ‘Killing Farmers, Raping Women And Girls’
Local hunters in Ekiti State who are part of the Military Joint Task Force have arrested two herdsmen.
The arrested herdsmen were alleged to be among the killer herdsmen that attacked Eda, a community in Ekiti, killing two people.
Residents of Ekiti communities have claimed that herdsmen are ravaging their communities, killing farmers and raping women and girls.
Oba Ebenezer Ogungbemi, Olu of Iyemero, handed over the herders to Police for further investigation.
Speaking on behalf of the hunters after the arrest, Jimoh Eisikin stated that the herdsmen were arrested at the early hours of Friday while parading the community.
“During the onslaught leading to their arrest yesterday, two of our village hunters were attacked with machetes by the evil doers. But for the fact that we were prepared, we got them arrested after chasing them into the bush,” he said.
“We brought them to Iyemero and tied them down at the village square with close security monitoring.”
Confirming the arrest, Caleb Ikechukwu, Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti Command, said a thorough investigation would be conducted.
He said: “Our men have begun investigation into their case and they will be charged to court upon conclusion of our investigation.”
Governor Kayode Fayemi had earlier ordered the deployment of military JTF to patrol black spots in the town and communities sharing boundary with Kwara and Kogi to curb attacks by herdsmen.
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target=_blank>Before We Leave Nigeria For Chris Ngige (Minister For Labour) And His Friends By Apagunpote Olayimika Chocomilo
Who owns Nigeria? On the 24th of November, 2018, I was invited as a keynote speaker to discuss with fellow youths on a topic titled “Nigeria and Nigerians: The Way Forward. That’s the genesis of my question. I asked fellow youths who have a great interest in the progress of Nigeria. Some people chorused “masses” while others chorused “Government”. I laughed at the responses I got because government officials are also Nigerians elected into offices.
Over the years, both teachers and mentors have unarguably declared that common Nigerians (the masses) are the unfeigned owners of the entity called “Nigeria”. I think this assertion is a product of selfishness because the rich ones also have their share in this inheritance called Nigeria. They are only wise and crafty like Nigerian prostitutes. As promiscuous men enjoy five-minute s** for a payment of #7000 per night so as Nigeria electorates enjoy #2500 on the election day and ended up struggling other days; they use what they have to get what they want. The rich class(Politicians) bring stipends to the masses every election year and masses in return sell their conscience every election. The masses dubiously give Nigeria, our common patrimony to men who see governance as a business every election year. They control the wealth of the nation, run government like private enterprise and play the politics of mutual benefits.
They give military and police jobs to the masses so that they can shoot, oppress, enslave and intimidate their fellow poor ones while they allow the rich ones to serve as heads of NNPC and other juicy federal institutions. They are in possession of nation’s treasury, military and others. These people who decide the fate of common Nigerians are the owners of the country and unfortunately, Chris Nwabueze Ngige is one of the owners and he has spoken the minds of others.
Chris Ngige was a governor of Anambra state in Nigeria from 29th May, 2003 to 17th March, 2006 under People’s Democratic Party (PDP). He was elected a senator for Anambra Central Constituency in April, 2011 and currently, the minister for labour and productivity in the Buhari led administration.
Ngige is a medical doctor by profession. He publicly stated that Nigeria have surplus doctors. He uttered this statement as a minister of labour and medical doctor. Many Nigerians have asked Ngige where is the productivity attached to his office as minister over his recent outbursts. Chris Ngige and his friends do not use Nigeria hospitals. Like their boss, President Buhari who travels to London at any slight opportunity for medical checkup despite billions of funds allocated to Aso Rock Clinic, they go to London, India and Newyork for treatment. If these jesters do not use our hospitals, how do you want them to know about the true state of our hospitals? How do you want them to know that drug stores only exist on papers, government doctors have private hospitals they refer to patients too and many more critical issues?
Our hospitals are in a sorry state. People go to hospitals and come back home in regrets. If it is not the wrong diagnosis, it is delay in laboratory tests. I have once visited Asubiaro state hospital and it took me three days before I could see the doctor. Three are only 3 doctors attending to hundreds of patients; these three doctors are also responsible for kids, mothers and men. It was a woeful tale. There are 774 local governments in Nigeria; these local governments have primary health centres. 90% of primary health centres are in a very sorry state. These centres are characterised with dilapidated buildings, empty drug stores, insufficient medical staffs, non-availability of medical utilities and many others. In advanced countries, animals can not be treated in such centres.
Majority of Nigerians have lost interest and confident in our state hospitals and they now take solace in traditional herbs and self treatment. There is virtually no home where we do not have a mother or father that prescribes drugs for malaria and typhoid. I could remember one evening after a stressful day, a co-tenant was busy prescribing drugs for her son and she was so confident about it by giving the sickness two days after drug usage.
I grow up unto the soft and caring hands of a loving father who has a small cupboard full of drugs. If you fall sick, just wait till he comes back from work, our family doctor will give you drugs and you will be fine. There are several times my loving father gives drugs to our neighbours for use. People go to these Iya Alagbos, with just #100, take herbs and get well. They cure all sorts of diseases at a cheaper price. Thanks to Iya Alagbos, many Nigerians would have tasted death.
Iya Abiye maternity centres and churches have taken up the duty of maternity wards in Nigeria. As Hundreds give birth in the maternity ward, thousands give birth in Iya Abiye medical centre. People pay less for delivery and they truly give birth at ease. As people tesify to the quality of medical treatment they receive from these local doctors, there are hundreds who have lost their lives over wrong diagnosis and drugs prescription yet people move to these local centres day in day out simply because our government is a failure and there is a medical doctor who heads the ministry of labour always informing government officials who do not use these hospitals that there are surplus doctors.
Chris Ngige is very right. In Nigeria, medical doctors goes beyond people who go to medical college and undergo the severe medical practice. My loving father who prescribes malaria drugs is also a doctor. Women who sell Agbo at market place are also doctors. Women who assisted in birth delivery called “Iya Abiye” are also doctors. Neighbours who prescribe drugs for kids are also doctors. I have friends who also dress up wounds after a football match, they are also doctors. Our loving mothers who put salt in water for bathing as a cure to Ebola virus, they are also doctors. Chris Ngige submission is based on these analogies. There are truly surplus doctors in Nigeria but we have insufficient doctors in state hospitals; that is why you see hundreds of people waiting at the reception of a state hospitals for consultation while thousands have no access to these hospitals.
A study revealed that more than 4000 Nigerian doctors practice in the United Kingdom and they are doing very well. They recieve awards of excellence and get promoted because they are brilliant and smart. Mismanagement, diversion of public funds, corruption and the poor state of hospitals were reasons why they left. They were forced to leave the nation as a result of sad narratives of our leaders. Chris Ngige is a politician and he has spoken the minds of his friends. They have no plans for the future of Nigeria as far as they can steal, divert and mismanage resources. As long as Chris Ngige and friends go to london for medical treatment, Nigeria will always have surplus doctors. As long as the rich and elite class can afford medical treatment in abroad, we will always have surplus doctors in Nigeria. Nigeria is in trouble. The elite have sucessfully waged war against security, they are presently facing health.
Please if you find it possible, take the next flight and leave this nation. It is just a “scrap”. 1000 citizens per one doctor. What a blessing!
Congratulations to the masses.
If the owners of the day pray for Nigeria leaders, the owners of the night would replace the prayers with curses. Radarada
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target=_blank>37-Year-Old Driver Strangles Boss’s Wife To Death After He Was Fired
Morenikeji Adeyemi, a 37-year old driver, has admitted to killing his boss’s wife.Adeyemi made the admission when he was paraded by the Oyo State Police Command in Ibadan.Shina Olukolu, the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, who paraded the suspects at the command headquaters in Ibadan, said the suspect was arrested at Sango Ota in Ogun state where he had relocated to after committing the crime. Making the confession, Adeyemi said: “I was hurt when my boss sacked me. That time, my wife just had her baby and because there was no income anymore, we lost the baby. “So, I thought of a way to get back at him, because it was so painful. My boss’s wife had once told me about her spiritual challenges, and I had promised to take her to a place for prayers.
“I was able to use that as a premise to lure her and I told her that I was taking her to a place Awe along Awe/Oyo road. We took her car and along the way, she said she was pressed, so she went into the bush, I followed her and strangulated her by the river in the bush. I then took her vehicle and ran away, before I was arrested two weeks ago.”
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target=_blank>PDP Asks: Do We Really Have A Commander-In-Chief In This Country?
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) wants Nigeria to ponder on whether or not there really iss a Commander-in-Chief in the country.
Prince Uche Secondus, Chairman of the party, gave the poser in Abuja on Friday while addressing a world press conference.
“Do we still have a government? The apparent incompetence of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the handling of affairs of governance has continued to take a huge toll on the nation,” he said.
“The security situation has been such that prominent Nigerian clerics have been raising serious concern on the issue of leadership, even questioning whether we really have a Commander-in-Chief in this country. While the Presidency continues to argue that there exists a government in our country today, what obtains in reality is different.”The level of bloodletting occasioned by the barrage of criminalities across the country can only be happening in a country without government. Things got even worse as the remaining goodwill of the people on this government vanished after it arm-twisted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) into tampering with the will of the people in the February 23 Presidential and National Assembly Elections.“There is no evidence of the presence of government in this country as crimes of all kinds are committed all over the country and Nigerians have never lived in such great fear and trembling for their lives. From Kaduna to Zamfara, Benue to Taraba, Plateau, Lagos to Enugu etc., bloodletting is continuing unabated; even the President’s home state of Katsina has lost about eight local government areas to bandits, not to talk of the North East.“Just last week a female foreign humanitarian worker, Faye Mooney, a Briton was brutally shot dead in Kajuru, Kaduna state. The situation has deteriorated to the extent that this country can no longer protect the lives of international aid workers who are here to help us clear our mess.”Secondus said the senseless, continuous bloodletting in Kaduna State should be blamed on the type of provocative leadership existing in that state and indirectly encouraged by the Federal Government. He accused “the ‘body bag’ Governor” in the state of lacking the know-how to engender peace among the people.
“Hs actions and utterances facilitate instead of ameliorating the ill feelings among the people,” Secondus continued.
“Rather than give teeth to governance and address biting national issues of concern like the insecurity, this government exerts all its energies and resources planning nefariously how to undermine democratic institutions.“After its several attempts to hijack the legislature failed, it turned to the Judiciary ridiculing the revered third arm of the government to the point of removing their confidence.“The executive-backed humiliation of the head of the Judiciary, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen is a well-designed strategy by the APC administration to intimidate and coerce judicial officers particularly the Judges and Justices to fall in line and endorse all their undemocratic behaviours that is bound to come to the judiciary for adjudication.“They should know that providence has placed in their laps the opportunity to make positive history and enshrine justice and fair play in our society knowing as a fact that no nation grows on injustice and injustice breed crisis. The Judiciary should also know that the global community are watching to see the calibre of characters in the nation’s judiciary.“I also, while appreciating the good work of the media as the 4th estate of realm, urge them to do more in condemning the deliberate bastardization of critical institutions of democracy and clear destruction of separation of power among the three arms of government. The media should as they have always done to stand up and avert the emerging dictatorial tendencies which always begins by trying to subjugate the other arms of government.”
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E2%80%94-not target=_blank>Onoja: Even If I wanted To Assassinate Someone, It Would Be Someone Who Can Change Votes — Not Austin Okai
Edward Onoja, Chief of Staff to Yahaya Bello, Governor of Kogi State, has denied allegations of his involvement in plans to murder Austin Okai, a leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Youth Frontier.
On Thursday, Okai had petitioned the Department of State Services (DSS) and other security agencies over the “plans” of Bello’s associates to kill him.
In the petition, also sent to the Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Commander, Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Okai said a murder attempt was being plotted against him due to “the opinions I hold about governance and leadership all of which I liberally discuss in the public space”.
He said the plan to terminate his life had been cleverly hatched to resemble an accidental discharge from the rifle of a marksman who will be an individual with no traceable identity.
“A substantial sum of money has been set aside for two purposes — induce a category of my associates and blackmail another category who are immune to inducement,” he said.
“The intent of this plan is to enable my traducers obtain information about my movement with these moles and/or have them plant controlled substances or arms in any of my homes to give legal push to a long term incarceration during which I will be killed. “In the event that the plan A flops, a plan B will be activated which will include a stage-managed robbery operation either in my residence or on the motor ways in ether Lokoja, Anyigba or the FCT in the course of which I will be fatally wounded thus leading to permanent disability or a festering wound on a sensitive part of my body.”
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PDP Youth Leader Cries To DSS: Yahaya Bello’s Aides Want To Stage-Manage A Robbery Operation To Kill Me
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In the specific parts of the petition where he named Onoja, he said: “As of now, I am reliably aware that on the 25th of April 2019, some operatives of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad were dispatched from Lokoja, lodged and have remained in an unknown hotel in the Karu/Abacha Road axis of the FCT and Nasarawa State with clear orders from the Chief of Staff, Government House, Chief Edward Onoja. Some others are constantly roaming the streets scouting for information. “The orders are simple and it is to the effect that I should be arrested in a manner that will cause me to question their identity in the course of which a fisticuff will ensue to create an atmosphere that will lead to my extra-judicial murder which will now be blamed on my attempt to either evade arrest or escape from lawful captivity. As back up to the federal SARS operatives, another squad of unknown persons have been heavily paid by the same Chief Edward Onoja to simply murder me by any means.”
However, speaking when SaharaReporters asked him to respond to the allegations, Onoja played down the political influence of Okai to be deserving of a murder attempt.
“I am just reading this long story by someone who couldn’t even go to his polling unit in Emewe in Tekina Local Government Area to vote in the last election,” Onoja said.
“I mean, elections are not things that you do on Facebook or WhatsApp or social media. Election is a field game and only people who have access, who go home regularly and interact with their people, will have a voice to talk to people on the direction they should go, so the truth of the matter is that the man is a ‘job man’, let me use the word.
“If you ask him today that what does he do for a living, you will find out that he cannot tell you for certain what he does for a living. So, a lot of aspirants are coming up and he wants them to look at him with some level of great value so that they can prise him to be doing their propaganda for them. And then he is making it seem like his life is on threat as if he is the best thing that has happened to Kogi so he is highly prized. The guy is looking for ‘magas and mugus’ who will fall for his antics.
“You can only go after people, even if you have to go after people in terms of assassination, people who can change figures in their locations, where they come from. That guy Austin Okai, I’m sorry, does not even know the road to his village; people don’t even know he exists, so he can’t even influence votes anywhere. So why are you bothering with someone who can’t even influence votes.”
Onoja said that despite everything Oka had written about the Kogi State government for years, the APC in Kogi State has been winning elections.
“Everything he wrote, did it affect the outcome of the last general election? We delivered for Mr. President in Kogi; we won two out of three senators in Kogi; we won seven out of nine House of Reps members in Kogi, moving from two to seven members. And for the first time in the history of Kogi State, we delivered 25 out of 25 Assemble seats to the All Progressives Congress.
“So, if you have such a wonderful result, my brother, tell me, why would you be dissipating energy on nonentities and people who cannot even call anybody to say ‘go and vote in this direction’? This is just the rabble-rousing of someone who is like a featherweight — when men talk, these are the people that should be helping us clean the chairs before we come and sit down to discuss Kogi matters.”
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target=_blank>Like Digital Rights, Like FOI: Where President Buhari Got It Wrong By Ridwan Adigun
Who is the Nigerian government actually working for? Anyone who has followed the campaign for the passage into law of the Digital Rights and Freedoms (DRF) Bill, 2016, and also followed the campaign that led to the enactment of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, 2011, will be prompted to question the disposition of the Nigerian government towards public interests.
When the DRF Bill was introduced to the National Assembly in April 2016, as civil society, we knew we were in for a long journey considering the fact that the Bill is one of public interest and the ruling elite is not known to show much enthusiasm about such. As anticipated, the Bill spent almost two years in the House of Representatives, Nigeria’s lower legislative chamber, before it was passed in December 2017.
However, the upper chamber, the Nigerian Senate, albeit surprisingly, also passed the Bill three months later in March 2018. According to a media report, supporters of the Bill had at that point assumed that the Bill’s legislative journey had ended and perhaps Nigeria was about to have a law that protects human rights online.
Unfortunately, the bill spent another eight months in the National Assembly. The legal unit of the National Assembly had spotted a problem in one of the clauses and the bill had to go through another round of legislative process to correct it before it was again (hopefully finally) passed by both Houses in November and December 2018. And two months later, it was transmitted to the President for assent, on February 4, 2019.
Having passed through this rigorous journey with heightened and sustained public and civil society interest, supposing government is working in the interest of the common people, it is only expected that such bill should receive prompt attention from the President who is elected by the people knowing that the people are not only interested but that the bill ensures the protection of their human rights online.
Sadly, the President of Nigeria said the Bill “covers too many technical subjects and fails to address any of them extensively”, listing such areas to include surveillance and digital protection, lawful interception of communication, digital protection and retention, etcetera, which he said “are currently the subject of various bills pending at National Assembly”, and as a result, he did not sign the Bill. Mr President even speculated that the Bill poses a “challenge of duplication and legislative conflict in the future.” I will return to respond to this in the later part of this piece.
Anyone who is familiar with the history of public interest bills in Nigeria especially those that protect human rights will know that President Buhari’s excuse for refusing to sign the Bill is nothing but what it is, an excuse, similitude of what former President Olusegun Obasanjo said to the FOI Bill when it was transmitted to him in March 2007.
According to Media Rights Agenda, when former President Obasanjo met with civil society leaders on April 27, 2007, he said he would not sign the FOI Bill for a number of reasons, the first being the fact that it was titled: “Freedom of Information Bill” rather than “Right to Information Bill,” claiming that the idea of “freedom of information” was imported “from somewhere”.
He claimed, among other excuses, that he was completely opposed to Section 13(2) of the Bill, which provided that: “However, in the interest of the public the court may override the refusal by the head of the government or public institution to disclose the information applied for.” The former President argued that this means that he can be compelled by a court to disclose any information which another head of state might have told him in confidence, (apparently, public interests matters less to someone who is elected by the public).
So, President Obasanjo threw away the baby with the bath water. And the FOI Bill having spent about eight years in the National Assembly already spent another four years going through the legislative process again before it was signed into law by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011. So, President Buhari’s reaction to the DRF Bill is nothing new.
Like FOI Bill, Like DRF Bill. If public interest bills will continue to suffer setbacks in the hands of presidents, then one should ask who exactly the government is working for. Late Professor Abubakar Momoh of blessed memory seems so right when he said “laws and policies are designed to suit the whims and caprices of the ruling class.” Is it because the DRF Bill is designed in the interest of the common man that is suffering in the hands of the ruling class?
As Sodiq Alabi noted, “The last few years have seen tens of millions of people connected to the internet in the country. These people conduct business, have a social life, learn and teach via this important tool. They even campaign for political candidates via the internet. However, despite the deployment of the internet across the country, Nigeria, unfortunately, lacks a comprehensive legal framework that protects human rights online, a situation that makes Nigerians online vulnerable to rights abuse.”
Rather, what Nigerians currently have is the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act, 2015 which has mostly been used to arbitrarily arrest people and gag freedom of expression online rather than prevent or prohibit cybercrimes.
But the DRF Bill assembles conventional rights aimed at making online spaces rights-inclusive and therefore balances the friction between security and human rights in the digital age. The Bill carefully addresses and prohibits hate speech while also protecting freedom of expression online.
The DRF Bill guarantees that human rights which apply offline should also be obtainable online. Importantly, it ensures data privacy and safeguards sensitive citizens’ data held by various institutions and equips the judiciary with the necessary framework to protect human rights online. It is a people’s Bill but the people’s president has failed to sign it.
To respond to the reasons provided by the President’s for his refusal to sign the Bill, the position of Media Rights Agenda on the matter is especially instructive.
In a statement, Media Rights Agenda said: “The purpose of the Bill was never to address technical subjects in the area of digital rights and Internet freedom in any detailed or extensive manner, but to propose and affirm a human rights-based approach in dealing with these issues and to ensure that future laws and policies as well as administrative actions are consistent with this approach.
“Given that no laws have been passed to guide the actions and activities of Government and other actors in these areas and in the light of the fact that there is no certainty about when such laws are likely to be passed, it makes no sense to refuse to assent to the Bill on the ground that it may duplicate or conflict with laws that are not yet in existence.
“A more logical approach for a government that is genuinely desirous of upholding and protecting the digital rights and freedoms of its citizens would be to ensure that the spirit behind the proposed legislation and the principles recognized in it are consistent with the government’s policy stance and then ensuring that the provisions of future laws touching on the issues addressed in the Bill are properly aligned with its policy approach, even where such laws seek to address technical issues in a more detailed and extensive manner.
“The Federal Government had ample opportunities during the legislative process to express its views on the provisions of the Bill and to ensure that the Administration’s concerns were adequately addressed by the lawmakers in the course of making the Law. Several agencies of the Federal Government with specialized and technical competence and mandates in the areas covered by the Bill were involved in the legislative process and did not raise any objection to the passage of the Bill. Indeed, they signed off on the provisions of the Bill, which was why the National Assembly was comfortable enough to pass the Bill speedily.”
For the President to have waited till this moment to eventually veto the Bill is not only a waste of the time and resources invested by the National Assembly and other stakeholders during the three years of the Bill’s legislative journey but also an indication of the President’s insensitivity to public interests and human rights of Nigerians.
Considering that the 8th National Assembly has almost concluded its term, if the current Digital Rights and Freedoms Bill, 2016, eventually suffers the same fate as the Freedom of Information Bill which had to repeat the entire legislative process following the President’s failure to assent to it, then it presents a clear indication that government in Nigeria, regardless of who or which party is in power, works only for the selfish interest of the ruling elite.
Ridwan Adigun SULAIMON, a Freedom of information, freedom of expression and digital rights and freedoms campaigner, educator, youth and leadership tutor, writer and social researcher, writes from Lagos. Email: sulaimonrid1@gmail.com; Twitter: @SulaimonRidwan; Tel: +2347031042977
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target=_blank>Kcee Tours The East With His New Album
There are two more days before Kingsley Chinweike Okonkwo, the Nigerian pop star better known Kcee, rounds off his ‘Eastern Conference Tour’ being held to promote his new album released earlier this month. The Eastern Conference Tour took off in Owerri on April 19, hit Umuahia on April 21, is currently in Enugu , and will end in Awka on April 28.
Kcee titled his new album ‘Eastern Conference’ to give him clear passage into his highlife heritage.
The name of the album was due to the popularity of highlife in the eastern part of the country where he hails from which was why he decided to tour the east due to the nature of the album title.
The nine-track album includes songs such as ‘Onye Chimere Eze’, ‘Doh Doh Doh’, ‘Yaweh Yaweh Yaweh’, ‘Oh My Baby’, ‘Ndi’Oma’ and Echi Di Imeh.
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Nigeria: Building The Largest Parasites In History By Bright Ogundare
All through history, most importantly from the agricultural revolution to the modern age, there has been the proliferation of economic parasites who are known as the ruling class. These elites have over several epochs made themselves fat while contributing little or nothing to production. This class have simply annexed the wealth created by the sweat of the wretched of the earth.
However, the Nigerian political class is gradually making the greediness of historical ruling classes a child’s play. Days ago, the media space was awash with the news that the Bayelsa State house of assembly has approved a new life pension for themselves. This package includes 500,000 monthly for a former speaker, Two hundred thousand naira for a former deputy speaker while a former floor member would smile to the bank with one hundred thousand. This is in continuation of several political pension acts across the federation as Bayelsa is just a subset of the rot.
From Lagos to Akwa Ibo to Rivers and across the 36 states of the federation, the political class after looting and milking the state commonwealth dry has found a way irrespective of political party affliation to provide themselves with a source of free money. This entitlement bestowed on them because of four years in office encompasses millions of naira every month, luxurious cars and houses, politics can’t be that rewarding in any part of the world.
In contrast, the average Nigerian worker 35 years in service gets peanuts which are irregularly paid. In fact, the contributory pension scheme have been a way to defraud the workers as the money is not duly remitted after being deducted from the average worker. These raw facts testifies that we have the greatest parasites in history – the Nigerian political class.
It seems that the Nigerian political class would milk the nation to death so far as there is a named country to rule on. Across states, the economic downturn has been the excuse for irregular and haphazard payment of salaries even though they won’t bulge on cutting down their own allowances and running costs.
With a dwindling revenue base and an ever expanding base of serving former governor presidents, governors, legislators, PAs, SAs, SSAs taking a huge chunk of the meagre revenue, the fate of the country is certain that we are heading towards the abyss.
Unfortunately, the present crop of national assembly members and their primary school styled state house of assembly accomplices would do nothing to save us from themselves . We might have to look inward for redemption, the Sudan or Algerian might be on us because with the renewed vigor of our parasitic ruling class, 2023 might be like waiting for eternity.
Bright Ogundare is a social commentator. He can be contacted via brightogundare@gmail.com
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