Profiles of newly appointed service chiefs by Buhari

ABUJA – President Mohammadu Buhari  on Monday , appointed new Service Chiefs and the National Security Adviser.
Service-Chief-6
1. Chief of Army Staff, Major-General T.Y. Buratai


Major General TY Buratai was the Force Commander of the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) before his appointment.
He has served as the Director at the Defence Headquarters, Abuja before his and has also served as the Commandant of the Nigerian Army School of Infantry.
He sometimes served as the Brigade Commander at 2 Brigade, Nigerian Army as well as Commander, Joint Task Force, Operation PULO SHIELD.
Major-General Babagana Monguno (rtd.) – National Security Adviser
Has worked as Commander, Nigerian Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) is Maj.-Gen. Babagana Mungonu.

2    Major-General Abayomi Gabriel Olonishakin – Chief of Defence Staff
Olonisakin
The new Chief of Defence Staff, Maj.-Gen. Olonishakin (N/6901) hails from Ekiti State. Until his appointment as Chief of Defence Staff today, he was the Head of the Nigerian Army Training and Doctrine Command in Minna, Niger State.
Rear Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas – Chief of Naval Staff
IbasIbas hails from Cross River State. He enlisted into the Nigerian Defence Academy as a member of the 26th Regular Course in 1979 and was commissioned as a Sub-Lieutenant in 1983.
His previous appointments include: Naval Provost Marshal, Chief Staff Officer, Naval Training Command, Chief of Administration, Naval Headquarters, Flag Officer Commanding Western Naval Command and Chief of Logistics, Naval Headquarters.
Until his appointment as Chief of Naval Staff, he was the Chief Executive Officer of Navy Holdings Limited.

Air Vice Marshal Sadique Abubakar – Chief of Air Staff
Abubakar
 (NAF/1433) hails from Bauchi State. His previous appointments include: Chief of Standards and Evaluation, NAF Headquarters; Chief of Defence Communications and Air Officer Commanding, NAF Training Command.
Air Vice Marshal Monday Riku Morgan – Chief of Defence Intelligence
Morgan

US trip: Govs, Amaechi, Bakare may make President’s team

Olalekan Adetayo

Pastor Tunde Bakare
| credits: www.larascopy.com

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The final decision on those who will make the delegation of President Muhammadu Buhari to the United States and other logistics on the impending trip will be taken on Tuesday, The PUNCH has learnt.

Buhari is scheduled to meet with President Barack Obama on July 20 at the White House.

The parley is expected to feature Nigeria’s current fight against the Boko Haram sect among other issues.

There are reports that Buhari will be accompanied by five state governors, including Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State; Rochas Okorocha, Imo State; Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State; and two others when he meets Obama in Washington, DC on July 20, 2015.

Lagos pastor, Tunde Bakare, and former member of the House of Representatives, Farouk Adamu, were also said to have been pencilled in as part of the delegation to US.

But the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, told our correspondent on Sunday that preparations for the trip were still ongoing.

Adesina said final decision on the size of the delegation and its nature would be taken on Tuesday at a meeting of those saddled with the responsibility of organising a hitch-free trip for the President and his entourage.

He said, “The programme for the US trip will be unfolded on Tuesday. Whatever is written now is still speculative.

“When the programme is unfolded on Tuesday, I am sure the number of people on the President’s entourage will also be known.

“Tuesday is the final planning meeting for the journey.”

The President is usually accompanied by government officials, including state governors, who by virtue of their status have something to do with issues to be discussed during such foreign trips.

The White House had earlier issued a statement, saying Obama would discuss “a holistic approach to combating Boko Haram” with Buhari during the meeting.

The statement added that advancing economic and political reforms in Nigeria would also be discussed between senior government advisers from both countries during the visit.

Buhari had on Wednesday met with the US Deputy Secretary of State, Mr. Anthony J. Blinken, inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja and expressed the hope that his forthcoming meeting with Obama would further strengthen bilateral ties between Nigeria and the US.

Copyright PUNCH.

Bishop who teaches Islam

By Agaju Madugba
For the immediate past Kaduna Diocesan Bishop of Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, the Most Rev. Josiah Atkins Idowu-Fearon, the time of glory has come having just been appointed Secretary General of the Anglican Communion Worldwide, with headquarters at Lambeth, United Kingdom.
The position makes him the second in command after the Archbishop of Canterbury. Breaking a record as the first African to hold the position, Idowu-Fearon has had a number of other high profile albeit controversial achievements in his over half a century of dedicated service to the development of the Anglican Church not only in Nigeria but also across the world. He is expected to serve for an initial renewable period of seven years.


When at the height of the Kaduna religious riots of 2000, Idowu-Fearon, against all odds, established a centre for the study of Islam in his Kaduna Diocese, a cross section of his flock virtually demanded for his head, calling him all manner of names including that of a Muslim Bishop, infiltrating the Church of Christ.
That name tag has tended to accompany the Bishop over these years for a man who actually speaks Arabic apart from holding a Master’s Degree in Islamic Theology.
The valedictory lecture and send-forth ceremony for Idowu-Fearon and his wife, Amina, which held Saturday at the Jakaranda Farms, on the outskirts of Kaduna metropolis, attracted a number of dignitaries from within and outside Nigeria, Muslims and Christians alike.
Kaduna state Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufa’i was there, along with former Governor Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, Taraba state Governor, Dairus Ishaku, a former Military Governor of Edo state, Senator Tunde Ogbeha, and a former Minister of Defence, Gen. Theophilus Danjuma, among several others.
The Cleric-Scholar and Passion for Islam
Born on January 17, 1949 at Gerinye in Kogi state, Idowu-Fearon said he formally embraced the Christian religion in 1964. Originally enrolled in military school to train as a soldier, the passion to be a priest apparently overwhelmed all other aspirations and as Idowu-Fearon explained during his valedictory speech.
“In my fourth year, it had become very clear that the Lord was calling me to be a soldier in His Army, to the extent that in spite of a direct entry to the Nigerian Defence Academy, I was given a sympathetic discharge by the late Gen. Hassan Katsina, in Lagos.” The development, according to him, “turned out to be the channel through which the Lord saved me.”
Several years later and in the course of his pastoral training across many institutions, Idowu-Fearon said he developed a special interest for Islam, more so, at a time in Nigeria when the religious harmony that hitherto existed between Christian and Muslim communities went sour.
At the Immanuel College, Ibadan, Idowu-Fearon said he met a certain Dr. Stadey who introduced him to what he described as the world of Islam, and, as he put it, “my interest was aroused, I pleaded with the Lord for a scholarship to do some further studies in Islam and I felt the need to carefully study how the Koran presents the nature of Jesus Christ.” The quest later led to Idowu-Fearon’s Master’s Degree programme in, Islam and Muslim-Christian Relations, at Birmingham University.
From then on, he delved further into Islam and also studied the Arabic language in the process, at the University of Jordan, Amman, and, eventually turning the Bishop into a visiting Islamic lecturer and Faculty member at both the Wycliffe College, University of Toronto, Canada, and at the Canterbury International Centre, United Kingdom.
Back home in Nigeria and applying his various trainings to his primary assignment as Bishop in Kaduna and Sokoto, Idowu-Fearon ran into muddy waters as a number of his flock apparently could not explain how and why a Bishop can be “so close to Islam and Muslims.” This is aside the fact that the Nigerian Anglican community also has its fair share of divisions pertaining to certain ideologies in the Christian religion and Anglicanism in particular.
Perhaps,   Voltaire’s philosophy may apply to Idowu-Fearon as it is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong. As a Theology student and researcher, Idowu-Fearon is quite familiar with the concepts of     Monophyisitism and Nestorianism, a twin Christology position that insists that Christ has only one nature as opposed to the traditional belief that Christ has two natures, one divine and the other human.
Moreover, as a self-confessed disciple of Richard Hooker who is believed to have laid the theological foundation for understanding of the church for Anglicans, Idowu-Fearon says he shares the concepts of the mystical church which is invisible and the visible church. For him, membership of the visible church is determined, among other things, the profession of the Lord Jesus Christ while only God knows those who belong or may eventually be part of the mystical church.
Whatever the arguments, for Idowu-Fearon, “in order to create and promote a culture of respect for differences within our Communion, I encourage our bishops in this part of the Communion to cultivate the habit of understanding other positions other than their own. Our bishops in Nigeria within their diocese should promote robust debates between the lay and ordained members and such will get the bishop well-informed.”
Blackmail, Mischief, in God’s Name
After his consecration in 1990 and given what he describes as his exposure and experiences which were compounded by his “undue” knowledge of Islam, Idowu-Fearon said his colleagues, fellow bishops, did everything possible to frustrate him in the course of his service. According to him, “my being elected as Bishop of Sokoto was seen by some in the then House of Bishops   as a way of humbling me but God used our time in Sokoto to expose us to the international community.
And, when Kaduna Diocese was going to be vacant, efforts were made to send me to be bishop in Cyprus and the Gulf; this was to get me out of the country. The form was filled and my signature forged without my knowledge. In Cyprus for an interfaith meeting, the Lord revealed it to me through Australian missionaries who volunteered to host me for the conference and the plot was confirmed by the then Secretary General of the Anglican Communion.
After my first five years as the first ecclesiastical Archbishop of Kaduna province, again, the powers that be felt that I was too close to the then Archbishop of Canterbury and the Communion at large, that I was promoting Western relativism and that I was going to sell the province of Nigeria to the West. Two bishops were specially commissioned to sell me as a convert to Islam and that Fearon is a Muslim, drinking tea with the Sultan and that Fearon was promoting homosexuality in Nigeria.”
The Road to Lambeth
Idowu-Fearon’s journey to Lambeth as Secretary General at the Canterbury did not come on a platter of gold. Although he applied for the position, along with 31 others from various countries, Idowu-Fearon believes that God made it possible for him to use his undergraduate and graduate studies in the United Kingdom to make contacts that ultimately laid the foundation for his nomination after beating three other candidates who made the shortlist.
According to him, in the years after 1990, opportunities started to open up for him in Britain and the United States of America during which he served on various commissions within the Anglican Communion. Idowu-Fearon was a founding member of the Canterbury’s Compass Rose Council, a foundation member and one of the first three presidents of the Network for Interfaith Concerns.
He was also member of the 13-man committee of the Archbishop of Canterbury that looked into the responses to Lambeth Resolution 1; 10 of 1998 as well as member of the committee that produced the Windsor Commission Report of 2003. According to Idowu-Fearon, “as I was thinking and praying about taking an early retirement in order to spend the rest of my active life to build an army of well-informed and articulate Christian leaders to constructively engage their Muslim neighbours and build a culture of respect and peaceful co-existence, the Lord opened a new world of service to me.”
To Idowu-Fearon, a Toast -Senator Makarfi, former Kaduna state Governor
We have become very close since 1999 when as Governor of Kaduna state, I met with religious leaders and Idowu-Fearon was one of them. You are all witnesses to what we went through especially between 2000 and 2002. He was a reliable and dependable partner in the search for lasting peace, harmony and tranquility in Kaduna state and we have sustained that relationship since then.
I have already told him that between London and Nigeria is more or less between Abuja and Lagos.   He is committed to Nigeria and he wants peace and tranquility for Nigeria. Physically he may not be resident here but I believe his heart and spirit will be here with us and he will continue to contribute his quota towards our development. He should continue to have faith in God and God that has taken him this far will continue to protect him and make him go even higher.
Rev. Dare Ajiboye, General Secretary, Bible Society of Nigeria
This is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. It is our prayer that the Lord will give you courage and wisdom like Joshua and Solomon of old to lead the flock of God to an enviable height and to the Promised Land. There is no doubt that God has prepared and given you the ability to serve His people in this new capacity and at this point in time.
We encourage you to be more determined and courageous in fighting the good fight of Faith. The renewed task will no doubt further compound your busy schedule but God who has chosen you will give you the required strength, motivation and good health to do it faithfully as unto Him.
Rev. Dr. Owe Boersma, Secretary, European Liaison Committee, Association of Protestant Churches and Missions, Germany
In the light of the excellent work which you have been doing till today, bringing together people of different faiths to live together in peace, even against popular mistrust and ignorance, gives us the confidence that the Anglican Community will be glad to have a person with such skills and experience.
Rev. Dr. Olav Fyskse Tveit, General Secretary, World Council of Churches, Geneva, Switzerland
Your exceptional record of devoted work on Christian-Muslim relations is a specific gift you bring to your new role. Developing the role of churches as peace-builders and dialogue partners in a time when religious-motivated violence is causing devastation to so many is an urgent demand for us all as faithful Christians. I pray that your wisdom and experience will inform not only the activities of the Anglican Communion in this regard but the wider ecumenical family as well.
Muslims and Christians must unite to fight secularism, Idowu-Fearon says
Coming from the north, do you have some members of your family who are Muslims?Yes, I have some distant members of the family who are Muslims and as a young man, some people tried to initiate me into certain things, some of them fetish, without the knowledge of my mother but I came to Christ at the Nigerian Military School, Zaria in my second year in 1964 and since then, I decided to rely on Jesus Christ alone and no other.
I once saw you clutching Dan Bown’s Davinci Code. Some people believe that the book is a direct attack on the Church of Christ. Do you hold that view too?
The book is an attack on the church because Davinci is totally against the fact that Jesus Christ lived and died as we read it in the Bible. That book must have been inspired by the Devil and it is coming direct from the pit of Hell, against the Gospel. And, that is why I consider this fighting within the church as a waste of time.
Instead, we should come together and be aware of the fact that secularism has become a religion and it is very strong and some of the promoters control most of the media. Christians ought to come together, forget whether we are Roman Catholic, Pentecostal and all others who worship God, the Christian way and join hands with the Muslims who are also fighting secularism. That is my mission.
Do you not think that some of the issues you raised in your valedictory speech may actually be responsible for certain disagreements you have with some of your colleagues. Issues as, the visible and invisible church and the concepts of Monophysitism and similar high-sounding words which may not make meanings to an ordinary member of the church?
You see, in the Anglican understanding and Roman Catholics also have similar understanding too and that is why the Roman Catholic is one church. But the Anglican Church is a group of churches, 38 different churches coming together and that is why it is a communion. We don’t have a centralized government or authority like the Pope, for the Catholic Church.
That is the problem the Anglican Church is facing. When we talk about the invisible church, it means Heaven and only God decides who goes there and you do not need to discipline anybody. From the Bible, we believe that whoever believes in Jesus Christ and takes him as the Lord and Saviour and you are baptised, that person is a Christian and belongs to the visible church.
In this visible church, you also have liars, thieves, you have adulterers, cheats and you cannot disown them and say that they are not members of the church because all they need is a confession to believing in Jesus Christ as Saviour. The Bishops and other priests are there to guide the visible church and teach them what the Bible says.
But irrespective of going against certain injunctions, you do not have the right to say that they are not members of the visible church. If for example somebody is a serial adulterer, you can suspend him from the church for a while, to correct him or her. In the invisible church, you do not need bishops or priests because God alone decides who become members. But we need the visible church to remind us of the invisible church because in the final analysis, everybody wants to be in the invisible church.
On the issue of Monophysitism, I did not want to go further because if I did, some people would throw stones at me but there are some Christians who still believe in Monophysitism. Members of the Coptic Church are Monophysites, they believe in one nature of Christ. But the orthodox position is two natures of Christ, the human and divine, not conjoined. In other words, Jesus is 100 per cent divine and 100 per cent human but only God knows how it is like that. Anglicans, Catholics, Presbyterians, we believe in the two natures of Christ.
Is the controversial Centre for Islamic Studies which you established in the Diocese likely to survive your exit?
Yes. In fact, I signed a contract this morning (Monday), recruiting two Muslims and two Christians who have Masters Degrees in Islamic Studies, to teach at the centre and I will be paying them from my pocket. They will continue to run the certificate and diploma programmes there. So, the centre will continue and we are going to use the lower part of the new house being built and I am putting up a full library there and the chapel will serve as classrooms until I retire.

Exclusive: How Buhari saved Obasanjo’s in-law

By Jide Ajani
President-elect, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), demonstrated he did not want the past to haunt him, according to veteran politician, Mr. Kenny Martins. In the run up to the just concluded elections, some actions of Buhari as head of state between 1983 and 1985 were cited as reason he cannot be a democrat. But to drive home the point that Buhari does not dwell on the past, Martins, in this interview, narrates the story of the president-elect’s reconciliation with the late Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua during the Abacha regime after they had both been estranged following Buhari’s claim that Yar’Adua played a role in ousting him as head of state in 1985.
Martins’ words: “He (Buhari) did not want the past to haunt him”.   You will read this part of the interview next week.   But the politician, who is an in-law to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, also speaks on how Buhari saved him from a plot to assassinate him during the Abacha era and how the president-elect ran the defunct Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF). 
The presidential election has been won by Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) of the All Progressives Congress, APC.   At a point during the collation of results when you saw it coming, what were your first thoughts about Buhari the man and the Nigerian nation?
My first thoughts were very deep.   First to thank God for making this day possible and in my heart I congratulated Nigerians because I believed that this would be the beginning of a new dawn based on the fact that a couple of things had happened before in this country.   That Nigerians could voluntarily elect this man without coercion and that, for the first time, Nigerians elected a man by their own will and their will has been allowed to prevail is very unusual.
How do you mean?
Nigerians had always had leaders chosen for them and it stuck.
Before the elections, there were many issues viz:   The type of people who were presenting Buhari; the character of some of those who were sponsoring Buhari; the way the alliance to bring about the APC was coupled; and, most critically, the type of dirty campaigns that we saw.   These four points, from your view, how do you think the average Nigerian situated himself within all these to independently make a choice?
Buhari and Obasanjo
Buhari and Obasanjo
I’m a bit philosophical about certain things. There are certain inevitabilities in life that, no matter how serious the odds are stacked against those inevitabilities, they may thrive for a while but, after some time, they will become evident without questions.
I do not believe really that those who presented Buhari or those who sponsored Buhari, if you ask them, I do not think Buhari was really their candidate.   But they were faced with a choice that they needed to win an election.
Nigerians were said to have been confronted with a choice between the deep blue sea and the devil?
Yes! Nigerians ended up with a situation whereby they believed that they were confronted with a choice between two devils – Buhari, seen as a totalitarian and dictator; and then Jonathan, after six years of inaction; that was what most people thought.
But what I saw was different.
Why did you see something different?
I’m writing a book that would be released soon: The Nigerian Project: My Testimony. And what we are discussing here now about Buhari, democracy and politics are chapters in the book.   The man Buhari! This is a man that is perceived to be all of the things that they have said.   And if you look at the campaigns, never in the history of Nigeria have campaigns been that dirty because the system was faced with a candidate that the system has fought against for a long time. And the system itself via cronies fought to shoot the candidate down.
I have believed that the best man to take us out of the mess we are in since he started contesting for the presidency was General Buhari.
Before people think this thing is a joke.   Is it because he has won the election now or…….?
(Cuts in) What do you mean?   This is a man I know very well.   I must first thank God for the position he has put me, the privilege to know many things about Nigerian leaders.   I’ve seen them breath, I’ve seen them laugh, I’ve seen them cry, I’ve seen them scheme and I’ve seen them victorious.
Which of them have you seen cry and why?
Is there any man born of woman who doesn’t cry when the situation calls for it?   When my book comes out, you will read about these things and I’m saying this with all sense of responsibility.
Look, name them, Babangida, Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and I can keep mentioning names, Buhari stands head and shoulders above them all.   But because of the reason of the system fighting and shooting this man down, I have always had a quarrel with God, that how come he has not allowed good people to govern this nation and take us out of this mess?   How come the best people are destroyed before they get to power? Nigeria is the only country I know that destroys its leaders.   When you see them hailing somebody or something, look closely, there is more to it.
Okay, before we come back to Buhari that you claim to know so well, you also know Jonathan. Can you deconstruct the man Jonathan?
There is nothing about Jonathan that needs to be said that I have not said.   In 2011, I voted for General Buhari while I remained a member of the PDP.   This election I voted for Buhari.   My closest friends, some of whom are here with us, used to laugh at me, saying I was wasting my vote.
You have to go back to the emergence of Jonathan, I spoke up. I said you cannot tell a man to give what he doesn’t have.   I say this with all sense of responsibility.   In 2010, I met somebody so big and high up there in this country and I said, ‘Sir, President Yar’Adua, in about a month’s time may not be able to govern this country any longer and that is if he doesn’t pass away and we must start preparing for any eventuality.’   Barely a month after, the then President was flown out of this country.
Now, let us be very blunt.   I’ve heard what some governors came out to say about who did what or did not do what during those heady days. People just make claims that they cannot substantiate other than to grandstand – some of us have been involved in some destiny-changing moments in this country and we don’t make noise about them.
Just before that meeting in Transcorp Hilton, Yar’Adua was flown out and there appeared to be a vacuum in the system and people appeared already talking about a possible military takeover.   Now I want to mention names here.   From that meeting with the big man, I went to Akin Olujimi, SAN, and had discussions with him and, after about 10minutes, he came up with this idea of Doctrine of Necessity. I want anyone who wants to controvert this to come out and speak.   And he gave examples of where the doctrine had been used when it appeared the constitution had become paralyzed.   He explained that to make it work, the headship of the Senate, House of Representatives and someone from the executive should make pronouncements on the issue and it would make up for the lacuna in the constitution.
I went back to the old man and, there and then, General Babangida was called and briefed, but we had a challenge of who in the executive that could make such a pronouncement and I proposed the Attorney General, Chief Aondoaka.   I met Aondoaka and briefed him, took him to the big man, he consented and, within 48 hours of my meeting with that big man, the Senate played its part through the Senate President, David Mark, the House of Representatives, through General Babangida and the executive through Aondoaka, who – on CNN – pronounced the doctrine and Jonathan became the Acting President.   The heroes of democracy are sometimes unsung and General Buhari is also one of them.
I suggested that Jonathan should just finish what was left of Yar’Adua’s term, continue as Vice President while allowing the North to finish the second term of their own eight years but I was overruled.
I based my suggestion on the fact that Jonathan was never really allowed to serve as a proper deputy governor under Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, before he became acting governor.   He just barely served as governor when he became vice president and, even while in that office, the cabal did not allow him to serve well as vice president.   And I asked if it would not be too much for this man to jump straight to become president, fearing that he would end up where we have ended up now.
You asked me about Jonathan and that is my impression of him – he was unprepared and he refused to engage capable hands to help him.
Between Obasanjo and Buhari, what is the connection? What is the bond?
Good.   Let me reveal this to you.   Sometime in 1995, just before Obasanjo was put away by Abacha, he sent me to General Buhari and he said I could buy oranges for him. I said I would buy a carton but Obasanjo said ‘no, don’t waste money, just buy six pieces and give him’.   So, when I got to General Buhari, I gave him.   He called for a knife, and after it had been washed, he cut and started sucking and I became confounded; so I had to ask this question, ‘General, what is it about Obasanjo that you people treat him like a demi-god?   Look at how you feel so pleased with just six oranges as if your father sent them to you’.
He said, ‘Let me tell you why I respect the man. I was his Minister of Petroleum for three years and, during that time I was in charge of selling crude oil, I built three refineries – I can’t remember how many he said; but this man never asked me how and who was lifting crude.   I just report to him regularly as was the practice at that time for the purposes of planning’.
He said ‘the only day he ever called me was one morning.   I got to work very early and the C-in-C sent for me.   And when I got to Dodan barracks he asked, what has Ghana done to you? I told him Ghana was owing us some money on oil-lifting contract and I canceled it.   The man asked me if it was my contract or Nigeria’s contract.   Obasanjo asked me ‘What is your problem.’
He then told me that he knew from Obasanjo’s Afrocentric policy of that time that he did not want Ghana to suffer fuel shortage and I restored the contract.   We then staggered the payment and he said that was the only time Obasanjo looked into what he was doing then as Federal Commissioner for Petroleum Resources.

READ FULL INTERVIEW ON SUNDAY VANGUARD

APC crisis widens as plot against Saraki, Ekweremadu thickens

    

    

 

 

• Atiku, Tinubu fight for control of APC

FROM IHEANACHO NWOSU, ABUJA
The rift in the fold of the All Pro­gressives Con­gress (APC) wid­ened at the weekend as loyalists of President Muhammadu Buhari, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and erstwhile Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, fight for the control of the party’s structure.
This is coming when the real reason for the delay in the appointment of key government officials, espe­cially ministers by President Buhari, has been revealed. Sources disclosed that one of the reasons for the delay is to see if a change in the lead­ership of the Senate could be effected, which will see the impeachment of the Senate President, Dr. Olusola Saraki and the Deputy Senate Presi­dent, Ike Ekweremadu.
A chieftain of the party from the North-East told Daily Sun that one of the national leaders of the party and an arrowhead of Saraki-must-go campaign has asked for a month or two to effect a change of leadership in the Senate.
He said: “I have to be truthful to you; we are faced with many challenges as a party. We have won election; we are in charge of govern­ment, but some leaders of the party are fighting internal wars.
“Those who are opposed to Saraki being the Senate President have promised that they can remove him and his deputy within a month or two. They don’t want the list of ministers to be sent to the Senate now until a new leadership emerges.
“I am afraid that this kind of thing might wreck our government because this will set us against the people of Nigeria. They don’t want Saraki to have access to Mr. President.
“We are not happy with the bi-partisan arrangement we have in the Senate, but it is a reality we have to live with instead of working to destabilise the National As­sembly. I don’t think it will be easy to get a two-thirds to remove the Senate President and his deputy, but some people have promised to make this happen.”
On the crisis rocking the party, the APC chieftain stated that whereas support­ers of Tinubu have not given up in the push to remove the National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, hench­men of President Buhari are strengthening his grip on the party.
He said all efforts are being made by the Presi­dent’s loyalists to correct the impression that he is not the leader of the party.
“Some people made a huge mistake by coming out to say that the President is not the leader of our party. That statement revealed what their thinking is. Some of our governors have convinced Mr. President that he needs to take charge of the party. The President may not be showing that he was not happy with that com­ment, but the truth is that we are seeing what those who have his ears are doing,” the source said .
He maintained: “They are not allowing the other forces to have their way in the Na­tional Assembly. They have also succeeded in convinc­ing the National Chairman to be on their side.
“That is why some people are working very hard to remove the National Chair­man. They feel betrayed that after helping to make him chairman, he can align with those who are working against the same forces that brought him to office.”
They accuse Odigie-Oye­gun of not showing much interest in fighting either Saraki or other elements in the party that are opposed to Tinubu.
Another factor that is tearing the party apart is the fight over 2019 presidential ticket. According to the source, the assumption that President Buhari would not go for another term is caus­ing gladiators of the party to fight for the structure of the party.
According to the source, Tinubu and his men are working with Kaduna State Governor, Mallam El-Rufai, on the understanding that the latter will take over from President Buhari should the latter decide not to run in 2019.
He said: “Our national leader is working with the governor of Kaduna. He identifies him as a potential candidate in 2019. It is be­lieved that el-Rufai is close to the President and is also popular in the North.”
He disclosed that some forces, like Atiku and former Governor Rabiu Kwankwa­so are fighting to take charge of the party.
Hear him: “Atiku is the main problem Tinubu has in APC. The assumption is that he has his eye on 2019 and some people want to stop him. The man himself is fighting back and wants to take charge of the party.”
He argued that what is happening in the party is normal, predicting that the situation will soon be taken care of when the govern­ment settles fully.

The Federal Government has issued licenses to import refine petroleum products to 29 marketers

Written by:

Olatunde Dodondawa, Lagos

The Federal Government has issued licenses to import refine petroleum products to 29 marketers in a bid to end the fuel scarcity witnessed across the country.
The third quarter approval for import allocations to 29 marketers signaled a significant reduction in the number of marketers previous issued with such allocations.
Previously, 43 marketers were given import allocation but the significant reduction may be seen as a way of blocking leakages in oil and gas sector as promised by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The 29 marketers include the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) which in the last couple of months struggled to sustain supply.
It was gathered that the approval was given by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) to allow NNPC and other oil marketers to import fuel into the country this quarter.
The third quarter import allocation is thought to be around 1.6 million metric tonnes of petrol, a source in PPPRA disclosed. NNPC, NIPCO Plc, Oando Plc, Conoil, Mobil Oil, Masters Energy, Techno Oil and Folawiyo Oil and Gas, Total Nigeria Plc and Mobil Oil Plc are some of the companies granted imported allocations.
Although the PPPRA was yet to issue an official statement on the third quarter import allocation, another source in PPPRA said the agency now expects major oil marketers to resume importation of petrol after extracting a promise from the government that outstanding claims on subsidies will be paid.
An industry source who pleaded anonymity confirmed the allocation to the Tribune Online in a telephone conversation. "We got our allocation on Friday and I'm sure there are 29 of us as against the previous 43 marketers issued licenses to import," he said.

 

 

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Volkswagen Reopens Assembling Plant In Nigeria After 20 Years

AfricanLeadership

Volkswagen Automobile Group has reopened its auto assembly factory on the Badagry Expressway, Lagos, after 20 years of suspending operations in the country. According to the German automaker, the reopening was made possible through its partnership agreement with a private auto company, the Stallion Group for the assembly of the Volkswagen brand of vehicles in the country in line with the National Automotive Industrial Plan announced by the federal government in October 2013.
A statement by the Stallion Group, which quoted Ratz Wolfgang, leader, Volkswagen Group’s delegation from Germany, added that the plant has rolled out the first set of vehicles, which includes Passat, Jetta, CC and Amarok models from the rejuvenated plant.
“Today marks the revival of the assembly of Volkswagen vehicles in Nigeria. Volkswagen has returned to Nigeria to continue a long history that began in the 1970s,” Wolfgang said in the statement.

“We are certain that further growth is possible, which is why Volkswagen is constantly searching for new opportunities to increase its global market and sales potential, and we appreciate the fact that we are able to strengthen our business relationship with our professional partner, Stallion Group.” Sunil Vaswani, chairman of Stallion Group, disclosed that the group acquired the moribund Volkswagen of Nigeria plant, resuscitated it and commenced the assembling of buses, trucks, pick-ups and passenger vehicles at the facility.

He said it was assembling Nissan, Hyundai, Ashok-Leyland and IVECO vehicle brands at the factory, while it had also developed a large team of skilled human resources following extensive training by specialists from the respective principals. “This is a great moment for Stallion in partnering a world leading global brand like Volkswagen,” he said.
“We are immensely pleased to bring back the proud legacy of Nigeria’s automotive industry, the Volkswagen brand that once was indigenously produced at the same premises. “Stallion is committed to investing and expanding its operations in the automotive value chain across multiple global brands and paving the way for Nigeria to establish itself as a regional leader in the automobile eco-system.”
He described the launch of Volkswagen vehicles as “another major catalyst for the revival of Nigeria’s automotive industry, which could lead to the development of multiple ancillary industries and component manufacturers, apart from fostering engineering skills and generating employment”.