Sahara Reporters Latest News Today Saturday 13th February 2021

Sahara Reporters Latest News Today Saturday 13th February 2021

Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 13/02/21

E2%80%94-deji Why We’re Confident Buratai, Others Will Answer For Their Crimes Against Humanity — Deji Adeyanju

Convener of Concerned Nigerians Group, Deji Adeyanju, has said immediate past Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, and other service chiefs will answer for ‘their crimes against humanity and the genocidal acts they committed.’
The group had in January petitioned the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged human rights violations and crimes against humanity by the Army during Buratai’s tenure.

In the petition, the group had asked the ICC to investigate, arrest and prosecute Buratai to serve as a deterrent to others who have made it a point of duty to indiscriminately abuse citizens’ human rights in the country.
But President Muhammadu Buhari had nominated him alongside other immediate past service chiefs as non-career ambassadors.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has forwarded the names of the immediate past Service Chiefs to the Senate as non-career Ambassadors-Designate,” presidential aide, Bashir Ahmad, had disclosed in a tweet.
However, in an interview with SaharaReporters on Friday, Adeyanju said justice will be served despite the ambassadorial nominations of the immediate past service chiefs.
He said the group had been engaging the ICC for a long time and was confident that justice would be served.
He said: “We have got a response from the ICC, they are looking into it. We will not say much on this issue.
“Buhari thinks he’s smart, we are smarter, he is trying to shield Buratai from prosecution by conferring on him, some form of diplomatic immunity but I can assure you that it will not stand. He is only postponing the evil day; the inevitable is going to happen.
“Tukur Buratai and others will answer for their crimes against humanity and the genocidal acts they committed while they were service chiefs. For us, this is not the first time we are engaging the ICC, we have even testified before the ICC in 2017. There are so many things we are debating that we wouldn’t want to discuss at the moment but I tell you that at the end of the day, justice will be served.”
SaharaReporters recalled the Army under Buratai was on several occasions accused of various forms of human rights violations by Nigerians and international actors such as Amnesty International.
In 2015, over 600 Shia sect members in different locations controlled by their leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El- Zakzaky, in Zaria, Kaduna State were allegedly killed by soldiers.
The Army claimed its confrontation with the Shiites who had placed a makeshift roadblock near a mosque resulted from an assassination attempt on Buratai, whose convoy was passing by.
Amnesty International had also accused soldiers of raping female internally displaced persons (IDPs) in exchange for food and killing hundreds of persons in detention.
An unconfirmed number of peaceful #ENDSARS protesters were also killed by soldiers at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020.

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E2%80%94-okunniyi Jakande, An Unforgettable Political Mentor and Benefactor — Okunniyi

Olawale Okunniyi, National Secretary of Project Nigeria Movement, a platform for leaders of thought and elder statesmen/women in Nigeria, has described the death of the first civilian governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande, as a monumental loss to his family and the entire people of Nigeria.
Jakande died on Thursday at the age of 91 in his Lagos residence.

The deceased was a journalist, an administrator and a politician who served as the governor of Lagos State between 1979 and 1983.
Okunniyi in a statement on Friday said Nigeria had lost one of its exemplary political leaders and administrators.
Okunniyi, a former member of the Presidential Committee on Constitution Reforms headed by former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, while bemoaning the exit of Jakande, said he was privileged to have worked with the late elder statesman.
“I was first privileged to work closely with Baba Kekere, (as Alhaji Lateef Jakande, the first civilian governor of Lagos State was fondly being hailed by his admirer, loyalists, and supporters) in the wake of our struggle against the one-party rule of the Peoples Democratic Party, following the flawed 2007 presidential election won by President Umaru Yar’Adua.
“It all started after I was instructed by our revered leader in PRONACO, Chief Anthony Enahoro, and Alhaji Balarabe Musa, Chairman of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, both now of blessed memory, to set up an exploratory meeting for selected leaders of opposition political parties and progressive politicians to work out an electoral alliance or merger of opposition political parties and allied political movements in the country to check the excesses of the PDP at that time.
“The first of the exploratory and substantive meetings, which was hosted by my humble self at the Lagos Airport Hotel, was chaired by Alhaji Lateef Jakande on the insistence of both Chief Ayo Adebanjo and Alhaji Balarabe Musa as Chief Tony Enahoro himself could not make the meeting. Ever since then, as the secretary of the movement, I became very close to Baba LKJ, who saw some potential in me and started mentoring me.
“To the extent that whenever I appeared at his Ilupeju residence, he would instantly dismiss any matter before him to see me immediately and most times privately, for us to talk politics and compare notes on the state of the nation. According to him ‘politics is life and service to humanity, we must take it seriously’.
“LKJ was later to defend and support me stoutly during my political travail of that era, when some gladiators within the movement started scheming for control of the movement. He stood by me staunchly till the end, always nudging me not to be ruffled but to be steadfast and focused on the goal. According to him to ‘Keep your eyes on the ball always on the political field’.
“He always made sure he honoured every invitation received from me, even at very short notice, not deterred by his advanced age and he was always inviting me for occasional private sessions to compare notes on the state of the nation. After some time, he drafted me into his Committee of Friends, his own inner political group, which used to meet every fortnight.
“The last assignment I carried out for him was in November 2020, when I was requested to go and receive a lifetime achievement award on his behalf from all past and present students of Jakande Schools in Lagos State, who were celebrating the 40th anniversary of the creation of their schools by LKJ. The event, which took place at Festac Town in Lagos, was facilitated by Comrade Joseph Eva, a foremost beneficiary of Jakande’s free education in Lagos and since the event was held in Festac Town in Lagos, I insisted that my own mentee and ‘aburo’ (younger brother) who was a former Chairman of Amuwo, Comrade Ayodele Adewale, should lead our delegation to the event, which was highly successful.
“There are so many political experiences I have gained from relating with Alhaji Lateef Jakande, especially on how to conduct meetings calmly and meticulously and to draft a concise communiqué of a meeting. Baba during the final stages of our movement engagement, became the chair of our manifesto committee and he proved that he was truly a political general with the way he handled all the young Turks in the committee. He was a very inspiring workaholic.
“In rounding off, I wish to recall a major meeting of the movement chaired by Chief Enahoro in 2009 and Baba Jakande assisted a great deal in conducting the meeting. After the deliberations, Chief Enahoro invited the communiqué drafting team to read out their draft but what came out was not acceptable to the leaders of The Buhari Organisation, TBO, and other top leaders present at the parley. So, LKJ just suddenly took his pen and asked for a paper at 80 years of age and started drafting a fresh communiqué, which was later endorsed by the house. That was the kind of selfless and humble leader LKJ was in his lifetime. LKJ will be greatly missed by humanity.”

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Police Take Over Lekki Toll Plaza, Display Show Of Force Ahead Of Saturday’s Protest

In what appears to be an attempt to forestall another round of protests in Lagos, armed police officers were on Friday spotted at the Lekki toll gate.
Speaking with SaharaReporters, a source, who works in Lekki confirmed the heavy presence of police at the toll plaza.

Also, a tweet by the Lagos State Police Command II (rrslagos767) on Friday, said it had deployed operatives to the toll gate, Ikoyi, Jakande Roundabout, and Eti Osa areas of the state, led by the head of the Rapid Response Squad, Yinka Egbeyemi.
The RRS shared pictures from the exercise on Twitter, stating that the show of force was done to deter crime as well as boost the morale of the officers in the areas.
The tweet read, “CSP Yinka Egbeyemi is presently leading a team of police officers on a show of force to Lekki Toll Gate (Admiralty Plaza) Obalende, Ikoyi, Jakande Roundabout, and other areas in Eti Osa as part of efforts to deter crime as well as boost the morale of his officers in the areas.” CSP Yinka Egbeyemi is presently leading a team of police officers on a show of force to Lekki Toll Gate (Admiralty Plaza) Obalende, Ikoyi, Jakande Roundabout, and other areas in Eti Osa as part of efforts to deter crime as well as boost the morale of his officers in the areas. pic.twitter.com/i8fXWrlN4m— Lagos State Police Command II (@rrslagos767) February 12, 2021

The plan to #OccupyLekkiTollGate came after the controversial ruling of the Lagos Judicial Panel of Inquiry to reopen the Lekki toll gate.
The panel, headed by Doris Okuwobi, a retired judge, on Saturday ruled in favour of the Lekki Concession Company, LCC, to repossess the toll plaza for repairs and insurance claims.
The ruling was supported by five members out of the nine-man panel, with the remaining four members, including Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), dissenting to the ruling.
Following the decision of the panel, some Nigerians vowed to protest at the tollgate on Saturday, February 13, 2021, from 7 am.

Access, GT Banks Close Accounts Of Cryptocurrency Traders

Two new generation banks, Access and Guaranty Trust, have started closing accounts of persons and entities doing cryptocurrency transactions within their systems, SaharaReporters has gathered.
The CBN had on February 5 directed banks to close the accounts of those involved in cryptocurrency transactions in their systems.

In an email received by an Access Bank customer and seen by SaharaReporters on Friday, the bank said it reviewed the customer’s account activities and “observed that transactions therein have been linked to cryptocurrency trading.”
The bank advised the affected customer to visit any of its branches around to request for a draft of their account balance.
The email read, “Due to the unregulated nature of Cryptocurrency trading and the further directive from the CBN, we are unable to serve as your organisation’s financial partner going forward.
“We have therefore proceeded on the closure of your account and a draft will be issued to you for the equivalent sum in your account.”

A staff member of the bank in Ekiti State confirmed the authenticity of the email to SaharaReporters.
“Yes, it’s true. Not only Access Bank, but all banks. That’s the new CBN directive to banks, so we have no option but to comply,” she said.
A screenshot of a WhatsApp conversation between a GT Bank customer and its customer support also showed the bank had started enforcing the directive of the apex bank.

In January 2017, the CBN said digital currencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin and others were largely used in terrorism financing and money laundering, considering the anonymity of virtual transactions.
The apex bank had also said that such currencies were not accepted as legal tender in Nigeria.
In February 2018, the CBN issued a warning to people who invested in cryptocurrencies, saying they would be unable to seek legal redress in the event of collapse because they were not protected by the law.
But the past six months witnessed a surge in the number of Nigerians earning a living by trading the digital asset.

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E2%80%99s-defend-lagos-tinubu-and-mc-oluomo-bayo-oluwasanmi Let’s Defend Lagos From Tinubu And M.C. Oluomo By Bayo Oluwasanmi

In Nigeria, corruption and political thuggery reach everywhere even into the remotest villages. Lagos as the commercial city of Nigeria is home to organized corruption and political thuggery.
Tagged “Occupy Lagos Lekki Tollgate,” the #RevolutionNow plans to protest at Lekki tollgate tomorrow, Saturday, February 13 against the reopening of the tollgate. The protesters are demanding justice for the Lekki victims mowed down by the Nigerian army during the #EndSARS protest.
Tomorrow, two sides will size each other up at Lekki tollgate. On one side is #RevolutionNow fighting for justice for those that were killed in the October 20 Lekki massacre. And on the other, is a ragtag counter group “Defend Lagos” sponsored by Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Sanwo Olu, and M.C. Oluomo, Tinubu’s chief thug, as the group’s commander. With these two groups starring each other down, the Tinubu group will turn a peaceful protest into a political thuggery clash.

Tinubu thrives on political exploitation using the powers of government. Oluomo’s livelihood depends on private exploitation by acting as Tinubu’s thug who terrorizes Tinubu’s political opponents. Tinubu’s APC government in Lagos is a government against the people. Twenty years of combined administrations of Tinubu, Fashola, and Ambode has turned Lagos into mega city of beggars. How many jobs were created in 20 years of these robber barons? How many public housing units were built? How many schools, hospitals, roads were built? Absolutely none!
Tinubu and every of his handpicked governors that have governed Lagos have consistently taken unfair advantage of Lagosians. They have used the vulnerability of Lagosians for their own benefit. As victims of exploitation, Lagosians are worse off today than at any time in history. Lagosians have become serfs used for the benefit of Tinubu – the feudal lord. It is tragic that the same exploited Lagosians will be used as counter protesters to attack genuine and legitimate #RevolutionNow protesters.
Who is defending Lagos from who? The answer is obvious. We know Tinubu, Sanwo Olu, and M.C. Oluomo, the exploiters and extortionists are the ones who profiteer immensely from economic exploitation, extortion, and liquidation of political opponents. They can never be defenders of Lagos. Rather, they are destroyers of Lagos. Let’s defend Lagos from Tinubu and M.C. Oluomo!

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Nigeria And The Cow Problem: Another Letter To President Buhari By Prof Niyi Osundare

Niyi Osundare

Dear President Buhari,
This letter, my second to you in five months, will begin with a very, very absurd question: Mr. President, will Nigeria drift into another civil war under your watch simply because the ‘Giant of Africa’ does not know how to manage its cows? Yes, absurd: for, absurdity is the faithful cohort of the grotesque and irrational, the conspicuously invisible and falsely true. No war has ever taken place without a potent dose of the absurd in itsmix of causes. No calamity has ever happened without a touch of the irrational. The distance between travesty and tragedy is perilously short. This is why History’s capacious house is replete with the skeletons of nations which went to war, after leaving their brains behind.
Mr. President, the country over which you preside is burning in all its flanks: kidnapping on the highways, kidnapping on village roads, kidnapping on township streets, kidnapping in the homestead, kidnapping on the farmlands. Nigeria has never had it so bad. The notorious perpetrators of these crimes are widely called ‘bandits’ and/or ‘Fulani herdsmen’, depending upon the speaker’s degree of sensitivity or political correctness. The ethnic origination and/or attribution of these crimes is my object of worry – and should be to anyone who cares for the stability of Nigeria and its survival as a corporate entity. Yes, the cow, that four-legged, two-horned, long-tailed, absolutely innocent animal, has become Nigeria’s casus belli , the moo-ing metaphor of a planless, dysfunctional country, waiting for another bout of absurdity to push her beyond the brink, and plunge us all into avoidable catastrophe. Big wars are often caused by thoughtless little issues. Mr. President, war drums are already sounding in some parts of the country, provoked by a question as dangerously absurd as this: when you and a herd of cows meet on the road, who/which should have the right of way? When you, a struggling farmer, get to your farm and find a herd of cows making a meal of the crops which are the lifeline for you and your family, should you take a bow as you shout bon appetite to the bovine bunch? When your only child is kidnapped and tortured and murdered, even after the payment of a hefty ransom, will you ask your neighbours to join you in the singing of the national anthem? Abusrdity, dangerous absurdity. But Mr. President, permit me to poach this unavoidably longexcerpt from an interview which was part of my contributions to the activities marking the 59th anniversary of Nigeria’s Independence:
Now, on to the Fulani Herdsmen. The frightening frequency of the repetition of that designation in the Nigerian media in recent times has left me with chilling apprehensions. As I have said on other occasions, we need all the tact, all the restraint, all the wisdom we can muster to tackle this extremely dangerous development, for Nigeria cannot afford to stampede itself into another civil war. Let no one underrate the havoc and destruction that are widely caused by these herdsmen ; the epidemic of kidnapping , ransom extortion, and murder, the looting and destruction of farmlands, especially in the southern parts of Nigeria, and the uncountable bereavements that have been the lot of many households. President Buhari and his federal government cannot pretend that they do not know what is happening – that, indeed, there is fire on the roof of the Nigeria house. How much investigation has the government done into this dangerous situation? If any, how thorough, how non-partisan? If, indeed, as we have been told, many of the so-called Fulani Herdsmen are foreigners in search of green pastures in Nigeria, how did they get into the country, and what are the border patrol officers doing about this? What do we call a country that cannot secure its own borders? With the cloud of insecurity hanging over the country, you cannot but ask “Where are Nigeria’s security authorities: the army, the police, immigration, the civil defence corps, etc? What do President Buhari and the Heads of these security units talk about at their official briefings?

Niyi Osundare

To say the least the federal government’s handling of the herdsmen crisis has been amateurish, pedestrian, and dangerously incompetent. Tell me: Is someone in Aso Rock trifling away while the Nigeria house is burning? Say something, President Buhari. Do something.
The Ruga proposition is a ‘solution’ that is bound to compound the problem. That is why many people in many parts of the country have seen it as a poorly thought out attempt at the colonization of their own territories. And, by the way, there is crucial, fundamental question we have not been not asking: why do so many Nigerians, in this day and age, have to roam the entire country, in search of grass for cows they rear and nurture on behalf of richer, more powerful Nigerians? Why are they not in school – like the children of their rich and powerful patrons/clients? Let no one insult our intelligence with the atavistic excuse that this wasteful mis-employment of a vital group of Nigeria’s youth is a matter of culture and tradition. Genuine culture fares better; and tradition is no disempowering imprisonment.
The Americans pasture their cows, the British do; so do South Africans and Ghanaians and Australians and Argentines, Chinese and Koreans, without turning a sizeable number of their young men into cow-chasers; without plunging their countries into ‘Herdsmen’ war. Let us try the miracle of the modern ranch: green, friendly, and peaceably/equitably located. Let us stop this ethnic profiling and stereotyping, this hype and hysteria, before they plunge us into another civil war. The War of Bullets usually begins with the War of Words. Let Rwanda provide us with a tragic – but avoidable – example.
Mr. President, I said the above some 17 months ago. Since then the situation has grown grimmer, the absurdity more alarming, more dangerous. The war drums are louder now and more persistent because the tension has been left to escalate. The customary silence from the seat of power has accentuated the loudness of the drum.
In the opinion of many Nigerians, your apparent silence is nothing short of ethnic connivance: that the herdsmen roam and range all over the country, killing and maiming with astonishing impunity, because ‘the man at the top’ is their man. This feeling of untouchability, this sense of ethnic entitlement is evidenced by the preferential treatment reportedly enjoyed by the herdsmen, and the failure of Nigerian Law to hold them accountable for their actions. Mr. President, you owe yourself, this troubled country, and the world at large the urgent need to show in demonstrably practical terms that the entire country is, indeed, your ethnic constituency. Say more, do more about the violence that is threatening the already frail fabric of the country. Go out and see things for yourself. The monsters consuming Nigeria are not the type you can tame through chats with traditional rulers on emergency trips to Aso Rock. The story in many parts of Nigeria today are those of murderous assaults by herdsmen and gory reprisals by local victims. A trip to Nigeria’s southwest region will tell you how perilously close the country is to a civil war.
Needless to say, Mr. President, we live in strange and difficult times. As a result of climate change the desert is marching towards the coast; swarths of old pastoral land have disappeared; the beneficent streams between the mountains have all but vanished. As the search for pasture pushes cattle rearing southwards, herdsmen and local farmers have found themselves locked in bloody battle over the available green patch, with old friends and neighbours becoming mortal enemies, and frequent skirmishes flaring into ethnic conflagrations, the type that consume unwary nations. But bad as this situation is, the climate-change excuse will not suffice. Ranches, Mr. President, ranches. Computer-regulated irrigation. Pasture colonies. Created oases. Artificial lakes. Let the cows eat and drink where they are born, not forced into endless dangerous treks across the country in search of dwindling patches of greenery. Ask our River Basins how it could be done. Empower the Faculties of Agriculture in our various universities, (and our Universities of Agriculture), working in creative alliance with those of Engineering and Technology, instead of stampeding them into interminable strikes that drain the nation dry. Israel made the desert bloom by putting its citizens’ brains to work. Today, the country produces 95% of its food requirements, and some of the best citrus products in the world . Concerning the young men and boys now famously known as ‘herdsmen’, put them in school; put their feet on the road to a worthy life. Let their rich and powerful masters/patrons (all over Nigeria!) treat them the way they treat their own children. Science, not superstition, purposive reality, not bovine absurdity, that’s the magic. Time to wake up, Mr. President. Time to wake up. The thinking, working world has left us behind. The whole wide world is appalled by Nigeria’s ostensibly incurable delinquency.
And that world is watching and wondering at the tragic absurdity of a country sliding mindlessly into a civil war over where and how to graze its cows. It is waiting for us to prove that we are wiser than our bovine bunch. It is, indeed, wondering whether in ‘Africa’s most populous country’, it is the people who rear the cows, or it is the cows that rear the people. Yes, the world is really wondering who owns Nigeria: the people or the cows?
Say something, Mr. President. Do something. Let us save Nigeria from another (un)civil war.
Your Impatient Compatriot, Feb. 10, 2021.Niyi Osundare

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Kaduna In Chains: The Curious Case Of The $350 million World Bank Loan By Dr Nasir Aminu

Dr Nasir Aminu

No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which large part of the population is poor and miserable. – Adam Smith
The 2007 Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) has been kind to all government tiers by allowing them to borrow cheap money as long as markets are happy to provide, subject to legislative approval. The Act provided Kaduna state with the opportunityto agree a record $350 million loan from the World Bank to finance part of el-Rufai’s development plan. The loan’s twointerest rates, 3.7% for $216 million and 2.2% for $134 million were low enough to satisfy the FRA condition.
The National Assembly rejected the initial loan application in 2017. All three senators from Kaduna state refused to support the rationale to borrow such humongous amount, given the state’s weak financial outlook. The lawmakers concluded that the details of the loan’s cost-benefit analysis were not viable. The refusal to support the loan application cost Senator Shehu Sani and Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi their seats.
However, in 2020, the second application was surprisingly successful. But not until after the State Governor’s Chief of Staff caused an uproar during the Senate committee hearing.The Senate committee members were uneasy as the Chief of Staff claimed ignorance about the state’s rising debt profile.He also could not present any evaluation document to defend the loan application.
It is wrong to depict the state’s debt profile as rising. The debt management office (DMO) report for September 2020 ranks the Kaduna second, behind Lagos, for accumulating sub-national debt. The report puts the state’s total external debtstock at $570 million. The debt includes $15.5 million of the new Chinese loan and 75% of the $350 million World Bank loan. Comparatively, a few months into el-Rufai’s regime,December 2015, the state’s external debt was put at $226 million. For internally generated revenue (IGR), a source for the state to pay its debt, Kaduna is raising more money than before. In 2015, the state was generating around N13 billion,but in 2019, the state generated around N44 billion. Still, over 50% of the state’s revenue comes from oil-related transfers from the federal government. Thus, being the tallest midget in town is not a silver lining.

Dr Nasir Aminu

The state is currently financing interesting infrastructural projects with loans from China and other domestic sources, but evaluating the impact of those projects is not a topic today. As the dust settles, having received three-quarter of the World Bank loan sum, one question stands out. Why did el-Rufaiagree to borrow $350 million with unfavourable loanconditions? At the cost of repetition, let me be clear about this peculiar question.
The loan agreement includes a critical condition that the state must spend 78% of the $350 million on recurrent expenditure. That means the state can only spend on paying for consultancy, training, and all sorts of fees exclusive of capital forms. The agreement is a dark-grey area for the FRAcondition that allows borrowing for only capital expenditure and human development.
On the other hand, el-Rufai decided to retrench a third of the state’s workforce who could benefit from the loan agreement.The state has a 43% poverty rate and a 40% unemployment rate, before the pandemic. Given a choice, the median Kaduna resident would not vote to borrow $350 million, their future earnings, and spend over three-quarter of the sum on recurrent expenses. Rationally, such amount should be spent onfinancing tangible investments, like projects in power and the primary sectors, which, all things being equal, would create jobs and prosperity.
For the remaining 22% of the loan, the condition stipulates that it can only be spent on soft capital expenditure, not hard expenditure. That means the state cannot use the loan to build a World Bank-funded infrastructure of any kind, that is, there will be no building of bridges, roads, schools, markets, water projects, et cetera. Contrary to the documented agreement, el-Rufai told the media that the loan was granted because a World Bank official saw the need to improve the state’s dilapidated infrastructure. Similarly, Senator Uba Sani explicitly vouched that they would use the loan to build infrastructure.
Thus, with the World Bank loan, Kaduna’s sub-national debthas more than doubled. It will have no tangible project from the loan. Its workforce has reduced, which contributed to high unemployment and poverty rates. El-Rufai should be ready to defend himself when accused of trousering the whole $350 million. Evidently, the public is yet to fully appreciate quite how unhinged he is when it comes to the efficient allocationof public finances.
But there is one more question. Is the state’s rising debt profilesustainable? It depends on the state’s economy. If Kaduna were to default on its sub-national debt, the federal government would be legally responsible for bailing-out the state.
In October 2020, Fitch, a global credit rating agency, classified Kaduna’s debt metrics as weak, with a grim financial outlook. The agency reports that the main sectors that drive the state’s economy are the primary and service sectors. However, the state is only focusing on rich mineral resources to attract foreign investors. However, the state reported a paltry capital inflow of $4 million in 2020. Comparatively, Niger state, with the lower debt burden, attracted 16.4 million. At the same time, Lagos had a capital inflow of $8.6 billion in the same year. The high unemployment and poverty rate of the fast-growing 8.2 million population adds to the state’s weak socio-economic standards. Thus, it will be difficult for the state to sustain its rising debt profile.
In el-Rufai’s world, a sustainable strategy to improve the state’s financial outlook was for the federal government to impose a tax liability, of N1000, on every adult as part of citizenship obligation. He did not think of proposing higher taxes for the wealthy residents or taxing the profits of companies who are awarded large contracts. One should recommend el-Rufai to school himself on Adam Smith’s canons of taxation. Frankly, given his prior unbearingeffort to self-educate, I doubt reading will give him any wisdom.
To summarise, the rationale behind the World Bank loan is not to unchain the state’s finances, but rather to put its finances in chains. And the spurious thoughts about bringing back medieval taxation are part of the process of nudging the state along that insidious path. The truth is, the real consequences of el-Rufai’s policies will not be known until he is long gone.
Dr Nasir Aminu is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at Cardiff Metropolitan University.

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E2%80%94-afenifere ‘Bauchi Governor Should Be Checked For Justifying Fulani Herders’ Use Of AK-47s’ — Afenifere

Yinka Odumakin

The Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation has slammed Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, for justifying the use of AK-47s by herders across the country.
The governor had on Monday faulted the quit notice given to Fulani herders in some areas in southern states, particularly Ondo, pointing out that the actions of the region’s governors were wrong.

Yinka Odumakin

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He said people from other parts of the country live in the North and none of them was given eviction order.
He had also justified the use of AK-47s by Fulani herdsmen, arguing that they carry such for self-defence because cattle rustlers are attacking them.
Mohammed had said: “On the herders-farmers’ clashes, you have seen what our colleagues in the South-West are doing and some of them in the South-East. Some of us told them with all modesty and humility – you are wrong.
“We have Yoruba people in Bauchi for over 150 years, even before the birth of Nigeria. Nobody has told them to go; some of them have risen to become permanent secretaries in Bauchi, Gombe, and Borno.
“And now, the Fulani man is practising the tradition of trans-human, pastoralism; he has been exposed to the dangers of the forests, the animals, and now, the cattle rustlers, who carry guns, kill him and take away his commonwealth, his cows, he had no option but to carry AK-47 and defend himself because the society and the government are not protecting him.”
But speaking with SaharaReporters on Friday, the National Publicity Secretary, Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, said the governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, never asked herders to leave the state but its forest reserves.
Odumakin faulted the governor for comparing those “carrying arms” to other Nigerians.
He said, “The governor of Bauchi is one of the troubles of Nigeria. That governor needs to be checked. How can you be defending those who are carrying arms to other Nigerians? Has he ever issued a word of commiseration to those who lost their lives? He has never done so.
“There is no South-West governor who has asked herdsmen to leave the South-West. Only Governor Akeredolu said ‘quit our forests’, are they animals that they want to live in the forest? Are there Yorubas in Bauchi who say they want to live in the forest in Bauchi, how can he say his criminals should come and be living in our forest when none of our own people is living in their forest?”

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Lekki Tollgate Reopening: Youth Representative On Lagos #EndSARS Judicial Panel, Rinu Oduala Steps Down

Rinu Oduala, one of the organisers of the #EndSARS protests, has withdrawn from the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution and Compensation for victims of SARS-related abuses.
Oduala was one of the youth representatives on the panel set up in the wake of the #EndSARS protests.

She said her decision was hinged on the fact that the panel ruled to reopen the Lekki toll gate when the government had not granted justice to victims.
The panel, headed by Doris Okuwobi, a retired judge, had on Saturday ruled in favour of the Lekki Concession Company, LCC, to repossess the toll plaza for repairs and insurance claims.
The ruling was supported by five members of the nine-man panel, with the remaining four members — Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN); Oduala; Temitope Majekodunmi; and another youth representative dissenting to the ruling.
In a statement released on Friday, Oduala described the development as an act of injustice, adding that she will not be part of a cover-up.
She said, “My stand on the reopening of the toll gate remains clear; the state government and the private organisation which operates the toll (gate) have not been cleared of collusion with elements allegedly deployed by the federal government to target Nigerian citizens on home soil during a time of peace, without provocation.
“Justice has not been served, and as a representative of the Nigerian citizenry, my only recourse is to stay the course of justice. Let me be clear: I chose to honour the invitation to represent my peers and to stand as an example that any Nigerian has the right to demand accountability of elected government officials and that our institutions, however flawed, can still deliver justice.
“What I will not do is be part of a cover-up. I am proud that I took the invitation because some of the successes the panel has recorded so far have been incredibly powerful for the people. For the first time, SARS victims have had the opportunity to be truly seen and heard by the government, by the public, and by the system that allowed them to be victims in the first place.”
I will be stepping down from the Lagos Judicial Panel as it is now obvious that the government is only out to use us for performative actions.— Rinu #EndSARSð??¥ð??« (@SavvyRinu) February 12, 2021

Oduala said although the panel achieved partial wins, they were not sufficient, since the government had not acknowledged its failings.
“The panel allowed victims of police intimidation and brutality to have their day in the light of justice. They got to expose the violence that was meted out (to them), to experience some catharsis from having the government acknowledge its failures and, in many cases, are going to be receiving some compensation, however inadequate for the disruption to their lives,” she added.
“This is further than we have ever come as a nation, and while this same rigour was not applied to the case of the Lekki Toll shootings, we can at least celebrate the wins that our brothers and sisters can finally claim in their fight for justice, and recognise that our collective will is more powerful than any institution.
“However, partial wins are not enough for me. I decided to join this fight because I wanted the government to recognise its failures and work to overhaul its security institutions. I did not expect piecemeal acknowledgements and efforts to sabotage vital proceedings.”
There have been reports and eyewitness accounts told of the unprovoked shooting of peaceful protesters by the Nigerian army at the toll gate on October 20, 2020, during the #EndSARS protests against police brutality.

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Woman Arrested For Brutalising, Locking Own Son Up For Months

A woman identified as Peace Onyebuchi has been arrested by the gender unit of Ajangbandi Police Station in Lagos State for allegedly brutalising her son and locking him up.
According to Onyebuchi, she had the 10-year-old boy in her first relationship but is currently married to another man who is in the Gambia in search of greener pastures.

It was alleged by Onyebuchi’s neighbours that she started beating the young boy since he was four years old. They added that the recent assault lasted for close to two hours as the minor sustained several injuries on his head, face, shoulders, and back.
The incident which occurred at Ekunpa, Ojo Local Government Area of Lagos, was reported to a human rights group, Advocates for Children and Vulnerable People’s Network, by a concerned neighbour.
The neighbour said, “This boy is six years old, his name is Divine. He doesn’t attend school anymore. Presently, Divine is looked up in a room by his mum. This torture has been going on since when Divine was four years old. His father is presently in the Gambia in search of greener pastures. This boy needs help. “I was not even aware of the issue until recently when my landlord’s daughter told me about it. I immediately told the landlord who didn’t take the issue lightly; he immediately mobilised all the neighbours to her door and demanded that she should bring out the boy so we could see him, at least to be sure he was still alive. “I used to see Divine in 2019 whenever he was going to school. He was a very fine young boy. He was very healthy and alive but since I had not been seeing him, I assumed he was not around. Little did we know she had been locking him up. When the landlord asked the mother to bring him out, what we saw was horrible.” SaharaReporters gathered that Onyebuchi hits her son’s head against the wall at the slightest provocation. It was gathered that personnel of the Advocates for Children and Vulnerable People’s Network had taken the young boy to the hospital for proper medical attention as he was unable to walk, stand, or even sit properly.

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