The Amalgamated Civil Society Organizations of Nigeria (ACN), a non-profit, non-governmental, anti-corruption organization, has called for the inclusion of the youthful Nigerian population into governance.

ACN which has over a million civil society groups (both CSOs and NGOs), has called for inclusion of the youthful Nigerian population into governance.

This call is coming as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is about constituting his cabinet and other organs of government since assuming the mantle of leadership.

The Amalgamated CSOs/NGOs said they are joining the clarion call by opinion leaders, traditional rulers, women groups, youth groups and well-meaning Nigerians, that the time of using recycled politicians, failed or disgruntled politicians, is over, as the group observed that the nation was full of youthful technocrats and bureaucrats with a lot of energy that are eagerly waiting to contribute their quota to National Development.

The ACN therefore, solicited for the cooperation of the present administration to look beyond former governors, ministers and people that have hitherto brought Nigeria to where it is today. The group rather urged President Tinubu to look for viable, virile, professional and youths presently occupying the various offices nationwide and continue to engage them, instead of using worn-out, fatigued and corrupt leaders that have brought the country to its knees.

In a press release, the National President of the Amalgamated CSOs of Nigeria (ACN), Comrade Gbenga Ashiru Abiodun and its General Secretary, Comrade Yakubu Abdullahi, posited that “the continued usage of old hands will not augur well for the country, knowing full well that, most of them are facing graft issues and corruption allegations over their necks.” The group added that, again, “age was not on their side as they no longer have what it takes to preside over 21st Century organizations, as they are fatigued and too old to take modern decisions capable of bringing the desired change.”

The Amalgamated CSOs said President Tinubu was a change agent who is fixed on changing the country. Therefore, he should work with the youthful population, comprising both male and female, to change the narrative on ground as well as look at the possibility of using proactive youths, presently occupying positions of authority who are already doing well with or without supervision.

According to the anti-corruption organization, they want government to make use of the youths, to enable them head strategic positions in the present administration. They equally appealed to Nigerians to prevail on the President to tow this line that will bring an overall socio-economic development of the nation.

The CSOs noted that the youths are already playing a significant role in governance, because “65 per cent of Nigeria’s population is under 25. Therefore, we need to prioritize the affairs of the youthful population like never before. They also echoed that, “the collaborative efforts between generations are vital to achieving a sustainable effective and efficient governance that serves the collective interest of all.”

The Amalgamated group noted that “fresh and viable young people bring fresh perspective to issues and matters that affect the generality of Nigerian,” adding that, the youthful population of people in governance presently can also be taking into cognizance as most of them are doing extremely well, “like the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi and others who are daily changing the narrative in their respective endeavours and have become Nigerian youth ambassadors globally, for making efforts to change from below, under him, the organization has been repositioned and rebranded.”

The ACN also emphasized that the inclusion of youths and young people in the present administration, will promote “inclusivity, diversity and intergenerational dialogue between the old and the new, thereby leading to a robust, more rounded and equitable decision making that is expected in today’s management globally. The CSOs further advised the President to retain, promote and elevate outstanding young people inherited from previous administrations, looking at some high performing government agencies today led by youths and who are doing the nation proud.

They earnestly called on President Tinubu to discard and retire those so-called leaders that have brought the nation to “where we are today,” as the CSOs noted that “those so-called politicians do not mean well for the country, but only work towards achieving their self-serving agenda.”

The ACN has therefore reiterated that the only way that change can percolate to the grassroots of the country is by using strong, youthful energy backed up by sound decision making personalities who are desperate to bring change.

And, this, they observed, “can only be achieved by the young people who have a vision already of what they want Nigeria to look like or be in the next millennium.”

They advised that President Tinubu should retire and tell the old brigade to their faces to go and relax and be honourable advisers from the sidelines, “as these groups of people are too old and cannot add value to the system as envisaged by the President who is poised and ready for a change like the young people.”

The CSOs have therefore called on all Nigerians and well-wishers of the present administration to advise the President on this line of action of choosing the youths as against the tired legs, as well as make use of high performing youths presently occupying positions, to bring the needed change and transformation Nigeria so desires.

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Senators Abdullahi Adamu and Iyiola Omisore left their positions yesterday as national chairman and national secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) following complaints about lack of accountability and non-inclusive leadership.

They were also accused of personalising their positions and sidelining critical organs, particularly the National Working Committee (NWC) and National Executive Committee (NEC).

Besides, Adamu and Omisore, according to sources, lost out in the power game because of an indictment in the party’s audit report.

The sources said the chairman had become a source of division in the NEC and NWC.

Adamu and Omisore came into office in March last year.

APC National Vice Chairman (Northwest), Salihu Lukman, has consistently accused Adamu of violating the constitution of the party.

The infractions listed by him included the refusal to tender financial accounts, lack of budget for NEC approval, absence of women, youths and persons with disability wing; refusal to set up committees on establishment, finance, inter-governmental, conflict and reconciliation, and refusal to review the last general election.

Adamu was alleged to have acted at “variance with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, APC governors and members of the National Working Committee.”

Also, the audit report on their tenure was “untidy and suspicious,” the source said.

But ahead of horse-trading in the post-Adamu era, former Nasarawa State Governor Umar Tanko Almakura may become the next National Chairman, with National Vice Chairman (Southwest), Mr. Isaacs Kekemeke as National Secretary.

Contrary to speculations of a concession to the Southeast, Southwest was still pushing to retain the post of National Secretary.

It was learnt that APC leaders have decided to consider those grounded in party politics to lead it.

While Al-Makura has been a party leader since 1979 when he was the youth leader of the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN), Kekemeke was a grassroots party coordinator and a former chairman of APC in Ondo State.

Sources said although President Tinubu wanted Adamu to be left in his position, many NWC and NEC members disagreed, insisting that the former chairman was “working at cross-purposes with” the President and other party leaders.

It was gathered that he was advised to resign by some of the leaders of the party.

The allegations against Adamu were unacceptability of Tinubu’s leadership, alleged contempt for the President, and open dissenting views with the President and APC stakeholders.

A source said: “Sen. Adamu was never on the same page with President Tinubu. Apart from his often repeated remarks that Tinubu was not his preferred candidate for the presidency, there were some campaigns he didn’t participate in.

“Adamu’s leadership is seen as bellicose. An example of this is when he publicly disowned the list of principal officers of the National Assembly as announced by the presiding officers who consulted him.

“Adamu described the announcement of the list as a mere rumour, casting a slur on the process. He failed to upturn what the leadership of the lawmakers did.

“There have been unguarded statements by Adamu. Without any medical report, he declared an ailing Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu as incapacitated, which embarrassed many party leaders, members and others.”

Another source said Adamu was also in a cold war with some APC governors and members of the National Working Committee (NWC).

The source added: “Adamu’s conduct and utterances were at variance with President Tinubu, APC governors and members of the National Working Committee.

“He has been presiding over a divided NWC because he took advantage of his age and past party and executive positions to ride roughshod members. He adopted an authoritarian style.

“No NWC member can offer alternative views and he didn’t accord them their rights and privileges as equals in a working committee.

“When the tension was high, Adamu and NWC members reached a truce on May 3rd with a pledge to allow all the structures to function optimally.

“But by May 10th, the agreement was deadlocked. Since then, there has been no peace in the NWC.

“All NWC members were not in sync with Adamu and it was not surprising that they ganged up against him.”

The audit report on the finances of APC led to pressure on Adamu and Omisore to quit.

A member of the NWC said: “The financial outlook of APC is untidy. NWC members were not pleased with it.

“There are so many queries to be answered by the party’s leadership. And no leader, including President Tinubu, can gloss over the discrepancies in APC’s account.”

Asked why Omisore’s fate was tied to Adamu’s, the source added: “These leaders acted like Siamese twins on all issues, including the financial management of the party.”

The horse-trading for the offices of the national chairman and the national secretary has started.

It was learnt that some governors, ex-governors and party leaders were already closing in on Al-Makura as the next national chairman and Kekemeke as secretary.

A former governor said: “APC governors and party leaders have been meeting on who should lead the party. The permutations so far have been in favour of the national chairman returning to Nasarawa State with ex-Governor Al-Makura highly favoured. We need to demonstrate that we have nothing against the people of Nasarawa.

“Some of our leaders have been pushing for the retention of the slot in the Southwest with Kekemeke as a favourite.”

NIGERIA’s oil output dropped month-on-month, MoM, by   5.5 per cent to 1.249 million barrels per day, mb/d, in June 2023, from 1.184 million mb/d in May 2023.

Also, on year-on-year, YoY, the nation’s oil output dropped by 17.6 per cent to 1.249 mb/d in June 2023, from 1.515 mb/d in the corresponding period of 2022.

In its latest July 2023 Monthly Oil Market Report obtained by Vanguard, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, disclosed that this was based on data obtained from official sources.

The report did not consider Nigeria’s condensate output, currently hovering between 300,000 and 400,000 bpd, meaning that when this is considered, the nation’s total output would be much higher.

However, in its latest July 2023 report, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, has it that Nigeria’s daily oil production lagged behind the OPEC quota in June as it rose marginally by 4.9 per cent to 1.241 million barrels compared to 1.183 million barrels recorded in May 2023.

NUPRC in its oil production figures indicated that in total crude oil production and condensate oil amounted to 1.472 million barrels per day last month, an increase of 3.15 percent when compared to May production of 1.427 million barrels per day.

[Vanguard]

No fewer than 60 legal practitioners on Monday, approached a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory to begin committal proceedings against the State Security Services (SSS).

The lawyers said the suit was hinged on what they described as a violation of multiple judgments and orders of the court directing the agency to release a former Central Bank Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele.

The lawyers led by Mr Maxwell Opara and Mr Ahmed Tijani, prayed the court to commit the SSS to prison until it clears itself of the contempt.

The lawyers filed a motion before the court for the issuance of Form 48 and Form 49, which are the forms used to commence proceedings to commit a contemnor to prison.

The lawyers said that by the judgments and orders of Justice M. A. Hassan, Justice Hamza Muazu and Justice Bello Kawu, the SSS Director-General ought to have released Emefiele from detention.

In an affidavit in support of the application, the lawyers deposed to the fact Justice Hassan restrained the respondents, particularly, the SSS from arresting, detaining, or interrogating Emefiele.

This was with regards to offences connected to terrorism financing, money laundering, round tripping and financial crimes of national security dimension.

They also deposed that despite the clear and positive orders of the court, the DSS went ahead to arrest and detain Emefiele and had detained him for over a month while shopping for evidence, which did not exist.

Addressing newsmen after filing their processes, Opara said the group would pursue the matter to its logical conclusion and ensure that Bichi was sent to prison.

He said this was to serve as a deterrent to other heads of security agencies that disobedience of court orders would no longer be tolerated.

Opara also said it was preposterous that the SSS had accused Emefiele of having committed heinous crimes against the state only for it to now file a charge of possession of a validly registered pump action rifle against him.

“Is it not clear enough to Nigerians that the SSS is persecuting Emefiele if after holding him for five weeks they can only file a ridiculous charge of possessing a validly registered pump action gun?”

“This clearly shows that the travail of Emefiele is more for political reasons than for any other.”

(NAN)

Gov. Alex Otti has said that no fewer than 2,300 ghost workers have been discovered in the state following the on-going biometric verification of civil servants and public servants in the state.

Otti had during his inaugural speech on May 29, promised to regularly pay workers but vowed to frontally combat ghost workers syndrome.

A statement by the Governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Kazie Uko, said the State Government had saved over N200 million on monthly wage bill as a result of the verification exercise.

The statement quoted the State Accountant General, Deaconess Njum Onyemenam, as saying that the huge savings were made using a unified payment system.

It further quoted Onyemenam, who spoke after a meeting with the Governor as saying that the verification exercise was still ongoing and that the government hopes to make more savings.

“So far, we have been able to save N220 million from the ongoing verification of workers in the state, local governments and pensioners.

“Not less than 2,300 ghost names have been weeded out of the payrolls, using the unified payment system and we hope to still identify more as we continue with the exercise,” the Accountant General said.

“She confirmed that following Governor Otti’s directive, government had last week paid the arrears of April salaries, left behind by the immediate past administration and also June pensions to retirees”, the statement added.

According to the statement, the Accountant General assured that Local Government staff, who had been skipped when the June salaries were paid, due to their failure to submit their verified payment schedule, “will receive their salaries this week”

In another development, the Abia State commissioner for trade, commerce and industries, Chimezie Ukaegbu, has said the government had banned illegal levies and double taxation in the state.

Ukaegbu stated on Sunday after touring markets in Aba, saying the ban was aimed at reducing financial burdens on the traders and sanitising revenue generation in the state.

He assured that the present administration in the state was committed to giving markets the necessary attention, and appealed to traders to cooperate with the administration.

Earlier, Ukaegbu had told the traders that the tour was aimed at having a first-hand information on their challenges to guide the administration to create a conducive business environment for them.

He said the administration would place premium on smooth trading and reactivation of markets to boost businesses and internally generated revenue.

The commissioner, who urged them to avoid anything that would cause division and discomfort in the markets, solicited their support and cooperation for the administration.

Similarly, the director of commerce in the ministry, Nmecha Udensi, commended Governor Alex Otti and the commissioner for their dreams for traders and the markets.

In their separate remarks, the chairman of Old Court Market, Sunday Anokwuru, and his counterpart of Good Morning Market, Esinna Ogbonna, expressed support for the administration.

Senator Iyiola Omisore, the National Secretary of All Progressives Congress, APC, has been replaced with the Deputy National Secretary, Festus Fuanter.

This is just as the proposed National Caucus and National Executive Committee, NEC, meetings slated for July 18 and 19 have been put on hold.

The new developments were announced by the Acting National Chairman, Senator Abubakar Kyari, after the meeting of the National Working Committee, NWC, at the party secretariat today, Monday.

Kyari told journalists that both Omisore and the erstwhile National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, were no longer part of the APC leadership.

He said that according to the party’s Constitution, he was now the acting national chairman of the party.

Kyari’s words: “We are here to address the happenings and recent developments regarding the party.

“The NWC wishes to inform you about the resignation of the National Chairman Senator Abdullahi Adamu and that of the National Secretary, Senator Iyiola Omisore.

“My humble self as the Deputy National Chairman (North) to assume the office of the Acting National Chairman.

“Consequently too, the Deputy National Secretary, Festus Fuanter, will now assume the office of Acting National Secretary of All Progressives Congress.

“With the recent development, we implore everybody here that the proposed National Caucus and National Executive Committee meetings slated for July 18 and 19, 2023 are hereby postponed.

“This postponement is not indefinite. A new date will be communicated in the nearest future.

“There are no allegations against them. Both of them resigned voluntarily and that is what is available at this moment. The details of their resignation will be made known to you in the nearest future.

“Everybody has its own style of administration and I think this present set of NWC will be relying on what the constitution says.”

Osun Assembly on Monday, passed a Bill reverting the name of the state to ‘Osun State’ from the ‘State of Osun’.

Recall that the state’s name was changed to ‘State of Osun’ in 2012 during the tenure of former Governor, Rauf Aregbesola.

The Assembly, through a Bill called ‘Osun State Anthem, Crest and Flag Amendment Bill 2023’, has now reverted the name of the state to what it was before the change in 2012.

After the Bill was passed for third reading at the plenary session, Mr Adewale Egbedun, the Assembly Speaker, said the Bill would be forwarded to the governor for assent.

He said the new Bill, after it is assented to by the governor, would replace the Osun Anthem, Crest, and Flag Bill 2012.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the new Bill, aside from reverting the name of the state, also changes the flag and crest of the state to the Nigerian flag and the Nigerian Coat of Arms.

The State Anthem established by the old Bill was, however, sustained by the new Bill.

The Assembly, thereafter, screened 13 of the 25 commissioner nominees who appeared before it, after the report of the ad-hoc screening committee was adopted.

Mr Akinyode Oyewusi, the Chairman of the ad-hoc screening committee, while making recommendations, said all the nominees are competent and qualified to be commissioners.

Oyewusi said the nominees met the requirements of the law and that they should be confirmed in line with section 192 (2) of the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 (amended).

The speaker, Egbedun, however, said the nominees would all be considered for confirmation after the House is through with screening.

In a related development, the Osun State Muslim Community, OSMC, an umbrella body of Muslim groups in the state, during the week exonerated Governor Ademola Adeleke of any wrongdoing in the compilation of the list of his cabinet nominees.

Addressing newsmen as part of the one-week event to mark the 1445 Hijrah Calendar, the President of the group, Sheikh Mustapha Olayiwola, said the governor has been balanced in his appointments, so far.

His words: “The Governor had first appointed his kitchen cabinets, who are all Muslims. His Chief of Staff, the Secretary to the State Government and his spokesperson are all Muslims and powerful members of the administration.

“Besides, the appointment of commissioners is not an exclusive duty of the governor, so many factors are considered in concluding, but so far, we believe the governor has done well and has not marginalised the Muslims in the state. Many appointments would still be done and more Muslims would be appointed.

“Our advice is that more Muslims should be involved in politics rather than staying away from it under the guise that it is a dirty game.”

Amotekun, the ondo state security network agency, has apprehended a total of 28 individuals involved in various criminal activities across different areas of the state.

Among the alleged offenders were two female students from secondary school who were detained by the agency for orchestrating a false kidnapping scheme and extorting money from their mother.

Presenting the suspects to the public at the command headquarters in Akure, the capital city, on monday, Akogun Adetunji Adeleye, the commander of the corps in the state, disclosed that the two girls, aged 13 and 15, respectively, were in junior secondary school (jss) 1 and jss 3.

As per the commander’s account, the perpetrators concealed themselves at Oka-Akoko in Akoko south-west local government area and proceeded to contact their mother, assuming the role of kidnappers. they demanded a ransom of N100,000.

Adeleye further revealed that the girls, posing as kidnappers, called and issued threats to the monarch of their town, coercing him to pay the ransom within 24 hours under the threat of harm to the abductees in their custody.

He said, “The 28 suspects we are parading today (monday) shows that we have more kidnapping than any other criminal activities. this is in continuation of our efforts at ensuring that kidnapping in ondo state becomes a thing of the past.

“We have people who kidnapped themselves and raised alarm and in our diligent investigations, we were able to unravel the mystery surrounding their disappearance to the extent that they have confessed.”

The amotekun boss noted that the arrest of the suspects was in collaboration with the operatives of the department of state security as the telephone line being used by the girls was tracked to where they were.

Speaking, one of the girls, who confessed to the crime, said it was her elder sister that lured her to it.

The 13-year-old said, “On that day, my sister and i spent the night in our grandma’s place and left there around 6:00 am the following day. while on our way back home, my (elder) sister told me that she had a plan to get money from our mother.

“She then revealed her plan to declare ourselves kidnapped and asked for N50,000 each ransom from our mother. it was my sister who taught me what to say when they put a call through to my mother.

“When we called we didn’t know that it was the monarch that was speaking with us on the phone and we threatened to kill our victims in captivity if they failed to pay the ransom quickly.”