BUHARI TO APPOINT MINISTERS AT FULLNESS OF TIME – PRESIDENCY

ABUJA – President Mohammadu Buhari will appointment Ministers only when it is feasible, his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina said Tuesday.
Speaking exclusively to Vanguard in reaction to massive public concern on why the president has not formed his cabinet, Adesina said that the president is preparing the grounds for the Ministers, saying that they would be appointed at the fullness of time.
He said: “The appointment of Ministers is constitutional because the constitution prescribes that there must be a Minister from at least one state of the federation and President Mohammdu Buhari will do what is constitutional. So, he will constitute a cabinet.
“But then when he does it is his prerogative. He is the one who will determine when he needs that cabinet. But for now, he has said that he wants to lay a proper foundation for the administration and that’s why he has been working with bureaucrats; the various Permanent Secretaries.
“For the past two week and still going forward, the Permanent Secretaries have been briefing him on the state of their ministries and then, I am sure at the fullness of time, the Ministers will be appointed.”
- Vanguard

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Sh

#GejWhileYouWereAway hashtag to report recent happenings in the country to the former President.

Followings news that Goodluck Jonathan has returned to Nigeria after a short holiday in the United Kingdom, supporters on Twitter launched #GejWhileYouWereAway hashtag to report recent happenings in the country to the former President.

See tweets below:

 

Why Nigerian Army can’t defeat Boko Haram – UK High Commissioner

The outgoing British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Andrew Pocock, has said the problem of Boko Haram insurgency in North-east Nigeria is not something that can be resolved with the use of the army, the police or the security agencies only.

Speaking at a farewell interactive session with members of Kaduna chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists Correspondent Chapel in Kaduna on Monday, Mr. Pocock said: “We don’t look at the problem in the Northeast as purely a security problem. It is not something that can be resolved with the use of the army of the police or the security agencies only. It is not going to be solvable.

“There has to be three different things; the first is a properly articulated security efforts. The second is that, there has to be a different kind of politics in the Northeast, where state and Federal Government work together instead of against each other and where there is a much more common and agreed agenda about what needs to be done to correct many years of mis-governance and of poor policy in the North-east.

“The third dimension has to be a developmental and economic uplift agenda. Too many, particularly young people are not only without employment in the North-east but because of the insurgency are without any economic prospect whatsoever. No one can live without hope and indeed if the economic and the developmental aspect of these are not addressed, the opportunities for radicalisation are much greater. So, those three things have to work in tandem, the security instrument, politics and development/economic approach.”

He however stated that with the new government of President Muhammadu Buhari, people are looking to a chance to get out of the security situation in the North-east, adding that, in the overall, there is greater possibility of stability and economic success, economic recovery perhaps than they might have been before the election.

The High Commissioner said although the army had some successes in 2013, those efforts were not followed up and Boko Haram came surging back in 2014 and effectively controlled most of the North-eastern country in Borno State as well as Adamawa and Yobe.

“20, 000 people killed in a conflict is a very serious matter,” he said.

He said in the overall, there is greater possibility of stability and economic success, economic recovery perhaps than they might have been before the election.

“The British government has long been involved in training Nigerian soldiers to fight the very difficult anti-insurgency combat that they are faced with in the North-east,” he said. “We have done this with some success. There is a lot more that we can do. What we need is high level access to the new people that President Buhari is likely to appoint.”

PHOTO: NIGERIAN MAN SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING IN INDONESIA, PROSECUTORS TO PUSH FOR DEATH SENTENCE

An Indonesian court on Monday July 6th sentenced 33 year old Nigerian man Uzoma Elele Alpha (pictured) to life imprisonment for possessing banned substances - methamphetamine and marijuana - worth an estimated $451,400.

Uzoma was arrested at his apartment at the Margonda Residence tower in Depok in December 2014 during a raid by authorities from the immigration office. The banned substance was found in his home after a search was conducted. Uzoma was discovered to also be living in the country illegally.

"Uzoma Elele Alpha has been proven guilty for owning grade 1 narcotic drugs and is sentenced to life imprisonment,” Judge Hariyanto said in his ruling at the court on the southern outskirts of Jakarta.
Chief prosecutor Eddy Abdul Aziz said his team would consider mounting an appeal to obtain the death sentence. Indonesian has strong policies against drug trafficking in their country. 4 Nigerians were in April this year executed in Indonesia for drug trafficking.

DOGARA CONFIRMS FLYING PRIVATE JET TO ASABA; SAYS “I PAID WITH MY MONEY”

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has denied owning a private jet or hiring one with public funds.
Mr. Dogara confirmed a report by news website, SaharaReporters, that he travelled in a private jet to Asaba, Delta State, to commission a church.
He however denied being the owner of the jet, or funding the trip with public money.
SaharaReporters had reported how the speaker confirmed to its correspondent that he was in Asaba, on his way to Ubulu-Uku, to commission a project.
Asked why he did not travel on one of the planes in the presidential fleet, the speaker reportedly said he was told that jets in the presidential fleet were not allowed to fly into the airport in Asaba, the Delta State capital, owing to the airport’s poor state.
He admitted that a smaller 8-seater plane was later allocated to him, but said he refused to use the plane because of the size of his entourage.
In a statement Tuesday, Mr. Dogara reacted to the news report by denying he was the owner of the private jet.
The statement, signed by his media aide, Turaki Hassan, read, “Attention of the office of the Rt. Hon. Speaker Yakubu Dogara has been drawn to a story published by online news portal Sahara Reporters about a private visit to Delta State embarked upon by the Speaker.
“We wish to state for the records that Hon. Speaker was invited to Delta State by Evang. Hon. Mrs. J.O. Mrakpor representing Aniocha/Oshimili Federal Constituency of Delta State to help commission a church she built.”
The statement continued, “Evang. Mrakpor has in the past built three churches and she just finished building the fourth one in her community in fulfilment of the promise she made to God before the 2015 elections that she will build a church for the community if God gives her victory.
“Being a private visit, Mr. Speaker in company of some of his colleagues including Muslim members of the House, attended the church service where the new church and not just an ‘altar’ was commissioned and prayers were offered for the restoration of peace in Nigeria.
“For the record: Mr. Speaker does not own a private jet. Mr. Speaker personally paid for the cost of the trip to Delta State and did not take a single dime from official coffers, being a private visit.”
He urged “online and conventional media organisations” to always check their facts before going to press.
-Premium Times

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AFTER REJECTING JONATHAN, NIGERIANS DESERVE BOKO HARAM BOMBINGS – FANI-KAYODE

-Premium Times report
A former Minister of Aviation, and spokesperson of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign organisation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has said that Nigerians asked for the recent upsurge in Boko Haram attacks by refusing to renew Mr. Jonathan’s mandate, instead voting in Muhammadu Buhari as president.
He said Nigerians were warned about the dangers ahead should they oust the Peoples Democratic Party from power but that they still proceeded to vote for “change”.
Mr. Fani-Kayode said having voted the way they did, they must learn to live with the consequences of their choices in the last elections, among which is the renewed Boko Haram attacks.
“There is a hideous and frightful hidden agenda which is slowly manifesting before our very eyes. Though we warned them, the Nigerian people wanted ‘change’ so they must live with the consequences of their choice,” he said.
He said one of those consequences is the new-found “audacity, courage, growing power and rising strength of Boko Haram”, while another is the “resurgence of a clearly ethnic agenda which is designed to leave no-one in doubt about who really owns Nigeria and who the slaves are”.
Mr. Fani-Kayode also said Mr. Buhari had always been sympathetic to Boko Haram.
“Anyone that honestly believed that a man who secretly shares the same vision and core principles of Boko Haram and who spent many years defending them can do anything but give them a free hand when he comes to power is living in cuckoo land,” he said in a Facebook post Tuesday.
The remark was posted first on Monday, but was deleted before being re-posted on Tuesday.
Nigeria has in the last two weeks witnessed an escalation of Boko Haram’s bloody campaign, with several suicide bomb and gun attacks targeting places of worship, communities and public places, killing hundreds of people.
The latest attack occurred early Tuesday at a local government office in Zaria, Kaduna State.
Twenty five people were killed when a suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive where civil servants had gathered for data verification in the Sabon Gari area of Zaria.
About 400 Nigerians are estimated to have been killed by the sect in the last five weeks.
Mr. Fani-Kayode, who recently changed his name to Femi Olukayode, in celebration of his court victory in a corruption case, said he was not surprised with the recent bombings and killings.
“I am not surprised by the resurgence of Boko Haram and their new-found barbarity, courage and zeal,” he said.
He also said the cause of the Boko Haram sect may have been aided by the removal of military checkpoints in towns and along highways.
He said the Nigerian government is also transferring Boko Haram suspects to Prisons in the eastern part of the country in order to ”spread the word” adding that no less than 182 Boko Haram suspects were released on the president’s orders just a few days ago.
“Is all this just a coincidence or is something that is dark and sinister now afoot in our country? “
“Whatever each of us may or may not believe, one thing is clear- that Boko Haram now have powerful friends and secret allies right at the epicentre of power and those friends and allies are running the affairs of the country,” he said.
Mr. Fani-Kayode said there is a much wider picture unfolding which the Nigerian people have yet to see and which they find difficult to accept, understand or comprehend.
He said yet another consequence of Mr. Buhari’s enthronement is the destruction and demystification of a national leader of the APC, Bola Tinubu, and his “Yoruba loyalists by his erstwhile northern allies in the APC”.
“Only a fool did not see that one coming and I am rather surprised that Tinubu’s followers are now crying foul and alleging that there is a northern conspiracy. Didn’t they know that before? Were they not warned over and over again?
“There are many other grave consequences which the Nigerian people will witness, in a most harrowing and frightful manner, in the next few months and years.
“May God deliver our people and our nation and may we learn to make the right choices,” he said.