Saraki may say ‘Bye Bye’ to being Senate President sooner

By Amako Nneji 

The ruling of the Justice Umar Dalandi-led Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, on Thursday, March 24, that it has the jurisdiction to hear the case against the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, for allegedly declaring false assets while he was Governor of Kwara State, seems to have knocked Saraki down to his knees.
This came barely 48 hours after Justice Abdukadir Abdu-Kafarati, of the Federal High Court in Abuja disqualified himself from a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by Saraki to quash his trail at the CCT.
Related: CCT delivers judgment against Saraki
Kafarati, had fixed Tuesday, March 22, for delivery of judgment on the suit. However, he announced his withdrawal from the case on the basis that his integrity had been called to question in the matter.

“It is only in this country that people can wake up and start calling people names.
“In the circumstance, I disqualify myself from this case. I will hereby send the case file to the chief judge for re-assignment to another judge,” the judge had announced.

Political pundits averred that the Dalandi Umar-led Tribunal seemed to have nailed Saraki’s political coffin by the decision to go ahead with the trial.

“There are fears that the CCT chairman, Danladi Umar, has not left anyone in doubt that he is on a mission to convict Saraki by all means,” a source said.

The source added: “Therefore, to subject himself to be tried by this tribunal and by this chairman is to commit political suicide.
“The Senate President has gone to every judicial length to stop this trial by the CCT not because he is running away from justice, but because he knows there is no way he is going to get justice off the case, if it goes to trial”.
Saraki was arraigned by the Federal Government on a 13-count criminal charge that bordered on corruption, false declaration of assets, and illegal operation of a foreign bank account while in office as a public servant on 22nd September, 2015.
Already, Saraki has allegedly come under immense pressure from within the National Assembly to resign and face his trial.
Some senators are canvassing the appointment of a Senate President in the interim to allow Saraki effectively take care of his trial while still being assured of the safety of his position at the end of the CCT trial.
To them, “with President Muhammadu Buhari in Aso Rock, the chickens are coming home to roost.”
However, other lawmakers still loyal to the embattled Senate President have opposed calls for his resignation citing the issue of fair hearing and justice.
Post-Nigeria learnt that the charges of false declaration of assets, if proven, carry grave consequences for Saraki.
Related: Saraki in total disarray as APC ‘gods’ sentence him to ‘death’
If he is convicted on any of the allegations, the guilty verdict would have deleterious consequences for him at three levels.
First, a conviction could see Saraki relinquishing the position he currently occupies as senate president.
Second, a conviction could also damage irreparably his reputation as a two-time governor of Kwara State, a qualified medical doctor, and a rising politician with an eye on the 2019 Presidential ticket.
Third, by law if the CCT finds that a public officer contravened any provision of the Code of Conduct, such person could be punished by being asked to vacate the office he/she occupies, seizure and forfeiture of assets in contention, or made to suffer any other penalty as may be imposed by the National Assembly.
Recall, that Saraki emerged Senate President on the floor of the Red Chamber on June 9, 2015, against the wish of some leaders of the APC, who had indicated their preference for his rival, Senator Ahmed Lawan.
Since his emergence as Senate President, the body language and certain utterances of those who opposed to his emergence had shown that they would have their pound of flesh.
This perhaps was why Saraki, while being put in the dock at his first appearance at the CCT disclosed that the reason why he was being tried was because he is Senate President.

Banks, elite not interested in agric, says Ogbeh

March 25, 2016

Cocoa

Everest Amaefule, Abuja 

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, has said that his greatest challenge since assuming office in November 2015 is convincing the Nigerian elite on the need to support investment in agriculture.

Also, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has earmarked $6m for cassava and rice production in three states in the country.

Ogbeh, who spoke to newsmen at the inauguration of the State Partnership for Agriculture by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Abuja on Thursday, said systemic support for agriculture from the banks was also lacking.

He said, “The biggest challenge has been trying to persuade the Nigerian elite – political, academic and professional – who are totally disconnected from agriculture. They talk about it on television and newspapers but agriculture happens in practice on the soil.

“Getting them reconnected will take quite a while. Bankers are not interested. There is no support to agricultural credit, fertiliser quality and management, seed control and seed quality. These are severally lacking in the system. And we have to reengineer the consciousness of Nigerians to respond to the new reality of our situation. It will take a while.”

Also speaking with newsmen, the Deputy Director, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mr. James Nyoro, said the State Partnership for Agriculture would enable Nigeria to move from being net importers of food to net exporters of food.

He added that the foundation would spend $6m on the programme in which Kaduna, Benue and Kogi states had been picked as pilot states.

Nyoro said, “For us at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the programme is going to be catalytic in helping the Nigerian government to achieve its vision for food security, reduce food imports, and increase agriculture productivity so that they can raise many millions of Nigerians out of poverty.

“Therefore, one of the areas we are going to work on is state partnership because we do know that action takes place at the state. That is where innovations are tested, whether you are talking about cassava processing and marketing or whether you are talking about rice; action takes place at the states.”

 In a prepared speech read on behalf of the ministry, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, said more than 35 varieties of cassava had been developed and registered in the country.

The varieties, he said, had considerably increased the production of cassava to make Nigeria the largest producer of cassava in the world with an annual output of 45 million metric tonnes.

He said, “Flour mills are being encouraged to substitute at least 10 per cent high quality cassava flour for wheat flour.  The master bakers have been more positive in responding to this policy and we will sustain our demand for inclusion of high quality cassava flour in bread in Nigeria.

“The impact of the quest of government to achieve food sufficiency is most evident in the production of rice.  A total of six million rice farmers have been reached with improved rice varieties through the e-wallet system in the past few years.  This has resulted in the rise of the total cumulative cultivated rice area by two million metric tonnes in 2015 even as the number of integrated rice mills in the country grew from just two in 2011 to 21 by 2015.

“The aggregate milling capacity of the large scale integrated rice mills in the country at present is put at 1,041,200 metric tonnes of paddy rice per annum.  Three existing mills are expected to embark on expansion to add 602,800 metric tonnes per annum to their collective capacity.  Another seven new mills expected to come on stream soon would add another 439,000 metric tonnes per annum to the national milling capacity.”

He added that the development of strategic partnership like the SPA would go a long way to contribute to the country’s quest for food self-sufficiency in the next few years.

PUNCH.

Buhari breaks silence, replies Fayose, Others

By Post Nigeria

President Muhammadu Buhari, has explained why he decided to spend most of his time travelling on oversea trips since he assumed office 10 months ago.
President Buhari disclosed this on Thursday, March 24, at the All Progressives Congress, APC, National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting held at the party’s headquarters in Abuja.
The President, among other things disclosed his government’s efforts to strengthen the economy, fight insecurity and improve the electoral system.
He slammed his critics by defending his frequent trips abroad despite the damming economic and security challenges confronting the nation.

“For globetrotting, sometimes, you need to present your case on personal basis to your economic colleagues and neighbours.
“Nothing is better than personal touch and I believe that we are learning a lot and eventually, the nation will realize so.”

The president concluded by urging party members to accept criticisms in their strides.

“I don’t envy you on the harassment you are going through from your constituencies. Take it with a lot of determination and we will be alright, God willing,” he said.

Recall, that recently the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose decried President Buhari’s frequent travels, maintaining that the President was wasting the nation’s scarce revenue on fruitless foreign trips.

“From available records, in June 2015 alone, the President travelled to Niger Republic, Chad, Germany and South Africa. Also in 2015, the President travelled to United States of America in July, Benin Republic in August, Ghana and France in September, India in October, Iran, France and United States of America in November and in December, he travelled to South Africa, Benin Republic.
“This year alone, President Buhari has travelled to the United Arab Emirate, Kenya, Ethiopia and he is leaving for France and United Kingdom today to spend four days abroad.” Fayose said.

Although, the presidency has consistently put up a defence that Buhari’s globetrotting has been yielding fruits, we are however yet to see any of such results.

Kachikwu Under Heavy Fire as Fuel Crisis Lingers

By David

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Kachikwu has been heavily criticized and asked to resign in the face of the lingering fuel crisis. This came after he announced on Wednesday that despite the efforts being put in place by the Federal Government, fuel queues might not be completely eliminated until about two months.

Kachikwu who said he can’t do magic said he and members of his team were working hard to resolve the fuel crisis. The scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly known as petrol, has lingered since January as hundreds of motorists crowd at filling stations daily without seeing fuel to buy.

“One of the training I did not receive is that of a magician, but I am working very hard to ensure some of these issues go away.

 

“And let us be honest, for the five or six months we have been here, NNPC has moved from a 50 per cent importer of products to basically a 100 per cent importer and the 445,000 barrels per day that were allocated were to cover between 50 and 55 per cent importation.

 

“So it is quite frankly by sheer magic that we even have the amount of products at the stations. We are looking to see how to get foreign exchange input; the President and I discussed extensively on how to get more crude directed at importation.

 

“His Excellency (Buhari) will rather have less crude but have individuals in the society suffer less with inconveniences than have more crude and have them continue to suffer.

“So we are going to put a new model to enable us to increase the pace and actually get majors as part of the crew of those to bring in more products so that the NNPC will sort of go back on the capacity of what it used to do and the majors will take over the balance of importation.

 

“I think if we do that, although I don’t want to put a time frame, but I will expect that over the next two months, we should see quite frankly a complete elimination of this (fuel queues).’’ Kachikwu said.

Kachikwu has come under heavy criticism from various stakeholders, including the organised labour, petroleum marketers, oil industry workers, manufacturers and experts in the oil sector because of the comment as he has been asked to resign due to his incompetence to tackle the issues at hand and save many Nigerians from this suffering.

According to Punch, the Trade Union Congress specifically asked the minister to resign instead of giving Nigerians excuses on why it would be impossible to get fuel easily in the country before June.

The TUC, through its President, Mr. Bala Kaigama, called on Kachikwu to resign to give room for a better person to be appointed if he lacked the capacity to solve the current problem.

Kaigama said the positions occupied by the minister were too demanding for him and urged Buhari to appoint a group managing director for the NNPC.

Kaigama stated, “If he is not a magician, he should resign now. What we are saying is that Nigerians are getting impatient with him.

 

“So, if he has no quick fix to it, he should just quit. We are getting impatient. He is moving from one unpopular policy to another, yet we cannot see any quick fix.’’

The Chairman, NUPENG, Lagos Zone, Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo, said, “For the first time in the history of Nigeria, we have an official of the government accepting government’s failure. I have said it several times that they have been rationing, and it is going to linger.

 

“But they shouldn’t allow it to get worse beyond this current situation,” he said, adding that tanker drivers were being subjected to unnecessary workload.

 

“They will say, ‘Discharge one compartment at Apapa; second compartment at Agege, and the third at Abeokuta. So, the job the truck driver is supposed to do within an hour, he may end up doing it for two days.”

The surprising benefits of smoking weed

By Jennifer Ajimande

So much has been said about weed, as many believe that smoking it makes one stupid, with about 9 percent of cannabis users developing a dependence on the drug and could lead to withdrawal symptoms for people who try to quit.
However, with all the negatives associated with smoking marijuana, there are also some surprising health benefits of smoking pot when taken in “moderation”.
1. Weed can be used to treat Glaucoma

Marijuana in recent years has been used by medical scientist to treat and prevent a host of diseases including, glaucoma (eye disease) which increases pressure in the eyeball, damaging the optic nerve and causing loss of vision.
According to the National Eye Institute, NEI, Marijuana when smoked, lowers Intra Ocular Pressure, IOP, in eyes of people with normal pressure and those with glaucoma, thus preventing blindness.
2. Migraines

Marijuana has anti-inflammatory properties that assist in pain relief. In fact, the effects are said to be “several hundred times more powerful than that of aspirin.”
Doctors in California have treated more than 300,000 migraine cases with medical marijuana. It has shown to be effective in treating a host of illnesses and conditions, such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.
3. Cancer

It is not news that marijuana helps cancer patients when they undergo chemotherapy, but recent studies found that marijuana can play a role in curing aggressive cancer.
Researchers in the U.K have successfully killed cancer cells in leukemia patients using marijuana.
How does it work? According to the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, marijuana turns off the ‘gene’ and in turn, stops cancer.
4. Boost metabolism and keeps you skinny
Medical reports show that pot smokers are skinnier than the average person and have healthier metabolism and reaction to sugar, even though they do end up eating more calories.
5. Boost creativity

There is a general belief that marijuana makes one stupid, but researchers have since found that the stereotype was based on co-relational evidence, instead of cause and effect.
Weed has proven in some studies to boost mental creativity, at least to a degree.
British researchers have found that marijuana increases the verbal fluency in users who ordinarily tested low for creativity.
Even though people’s short-term memories tend to function worse when high, people get better at tests requiring them to come up with new ideas.
However, it is important to note that higher doses can increase anxiety and make you paranoid.

Buhari apologises for dissolving universities’ governing councils

Premium Times

President Muhammadu Buhari has apologised for dissolving governing councils of universities along with the boards of parastatal agencies.
Mr. Buhari offered the apology during the National Executive Council meeting of the All Progressives Congress in Abuja on Thursday.
He said: ”We gave a blanket order which we had to rescind when we said all boards are suspended or dissolved.
”We had to go back and lick our vomit in terms of universities councils because we found out that according to their laws, they cannot choose vice chancellors unless the councils sit and interview candidates who want to be VCs.
”So, there is nothing wrong in saying sorry and going back on your decision. So, we said sorry and allow all the universities to continue with their councils.
“So, please, try to bear with us as we reflect on where we found ourselves.”
Mr. Buhari said the government had made progress in security as 14 out of the 774 local governments seized by insurgents had been recaptured.

He said his government had been able to recover more than three trillion naira by insisting on the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
”The policy we are trying to implement is TSA when we insist that we have to know what comes in and what goes out for us to make a comprehensive amendment to the economy.
”If you go and see the Central Bank Governor, he will tell you that in the TSA, we have more than N3 trillion. Where would this money have been if TSA was not in vogue?
”I was made to understand that vouchers would have quickly been raised towards the end of the financial year and checks made whether they are going into projects or private pockets, nobody can prove it to you.
”But that money is there, it is identified, if is quantified and when the budget comes back eventually, the Ministry of Finance will see how to allocate it to the rest of the country”, he said.
Buhari also said that he had tried to ensure that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation be reorganised, so as to know how much of crude is taken, sold and to which account the money was going.
”I tell you that up to the time we came, if anybody told you that he knows how much of crude exchanges hands either on the high sea or reaching their destination and the accounts the money goes into, that person is not telling you the truth.
”We are getting the cooperation of countries that had received this crude. But we have to be sure of the facts in our hands before we start prosecution so that Nigerians will believe what we have been telling them.
”I was telling a British team that came to supervise the training team they sent, that when I was in uniform, we took the perceived corrupt ones and put them in safe custody and quietly told them they were guilty until they can prove themselves innocent.
”But now, under multiparty democratic system, I see some of them ride Rolls Royce, some of them have built estates here, but they are innocent until we can prove them guilty.
“This situation is true and you don’t need to stretch your imagination to find out.
“If you can find out, you discover that a level eight officer has five houses, while you, as a Permanent Secretary or Commissioner is still living in a rented house.
“That is the credible thing to do now. We have to get credible evidence to carry our successful prosecution and get judgment from the judiciary.
”Effort is being made to give a list of recoveries in whatever currencies so far so that Nigerians will know that it is not all about long stories”, he said.

He urged APC members to continue to make sacrifices, adding that when he came on board, he had to cut down on cost by reducing the 42 ministries to 24. (NAN)

Petrol scarcity: Kachikwu’s comment fuels hoarding, panic buying

 by  PUNCH

Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu

The current fuel scarcity in the country took a turn for the worse on Thursday as motorists and other petrol consumers flocked filling stations in major towns nationwide in what industry stakeholders described as panic buying fuelled by the statement made by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr.Ibe Kachikwu, the previous day.

Kachikwu, who is also the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, had on Wednesday said despite the efforts being made by the Federal Government, fuel queues would not completely disappear until May.

The statement was said to have also raised the prospect of hoarding of petrol by some marketers who would want to profiteer from the current situation.

On the Otedola Estate and Berger ends of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the Mobil, Capital Oil and Oando filling stations had long queues of desperate motorists and other customers, which spilled onto the road and caused gridlock, while there was no activity at the Conoil and the other Oando station on the axis as of the time one of our correspondents checked.

The minister’s statement also worsened the already bad fuel supply situation in Abuja, Kaduna and Nasarawa states, as hundreds of motorists armed themselves with jerry-cans and besieged the few stations dispensing petrol on Thursday.

Most of them were of the view that since the scarcity would persist for the next two months, it would be wise to fill up their vehicle tanks and stockpile petrol in jerry-cans pending when the situation would improve.

A former President of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, Mr. Peter Esele, said, “I think that statement is very unfortunate. If you look at it on the surface, probably the minister just wanted to tell Nigerians the way it is. But again, that is what is on the ground. There is no need for us to colour the challenges that we are facing.”

Esele, however, noted that the comment had created a lot of panic buying in the system, saying, “That is where I actually have an issue with the minister’s statement. He wanted to be upfront. But being upfront means that you can also now unsettle and unbalance the system.

“Right now, what we have is that the system is unsettled based on the minister’s comment. What I would have expected is that he informs his principal, who is the President and Minister of Petroleum, then the principal will now know how to deal with it and communicate to Nigerians effectively.

“Now, we are going to have those (marketers) who even have products who want to hoard and sell at very expensive prices.”

The Chairman, Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, Lagos Zone, Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo, said, “The statement was a little bit blunt. Instead of deceiving Nigerians, he (Kachikwu) made it known to them that there is no magic he can do. It may not be up to that two months because it is not that he is not doing anything; they are doing something tangible.

“The panic buying, which the statement has created, is not good for the system, and it is even portraying this government in bad light. But at the same time, it is a plus to us as Nigerians so that we will prepare very well and be efficient in using fuel.

“The pronouncement is going to create a lot of maximisation of profit by the marketers. Some of them will be hoarding. Can the Department of Petroleum Resources go for any enforcement with this pronouncement? It is not possible because the marketers, if they cannot get it at the controlled price, they will comfortably be selling above the pump price. So, it is a very bad signal.”

However, the Deputy Manager, Public Affairs, DPR, Mr. George Ene-Ita, said the agency would clamp down on any marketer found to be hoarding products.

“For us, it is a routine thing. Our people go out daily and whatever we see there, we take action as appropriate,” he added.

On the Kubwa Expressway, the two NNPC mega stations located on opposite sides of the road had long queues and motorists were determined to buy petrol even in their jerry-cans, despite the fact that the outlets had prohibited the sale of fuel in jerry-cans.

“What do you expect from us after the minister has announced that the scarcity will last till May?” Ogbonnaya Kalu, who armed himself with two 40-litre jerry-cans in front of one of the NNPC mega stations, said.

Queues were also heavy in front of other filling stations like AA Rano, MRS, Conoil and Mobil along the expressway.

Similar situations were observed in the Abuja city centre and in neighbouring states of Nasarawa and Kaduna, as attendants in some of the filling stations were openly collecting N500 from each customer who wished to fill their jerry-cans.

The NNPC on Thursday said it was doing everything possible to end the noticeable fuel queues in most parts of the country in the weeks ahead.

It also stressed that Kachikwu was misquoted on the issue of petrol scarcity dragging on till May.