The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, has formally lodged a complaint with the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation regarding allegations of sexual harassment levelled against the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Ambassador Ibrahim Lamuwa.

In a letter addressed to the HOCSF dated May 27, 2024, and sighted by our correspondent on Tuesday, Tuggar expressed his concern over the serious nature of the allegation levelled against the permanent secretary by Mrs Simisola Ajayi.

He emphasised the importance of addressing the matter urgently and thoroughly.

The letter was titled, “Re: Official Complaint Regarding Sexual Harassment Of Mrs Simisola Fajemirokun Ajayi By Ambassador Ibrahim Adamu Lamuwa (Permanent Secretary Ministry Of Foreign Affairs).”

It read, “I am compelled to write to inform you of a formal complaint against the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Ibrahim Adamu Lamuwa, on allegations of sexual harassment.

“Bearing in mind the gravity of the matter, I feel it necessary to draw your attention to it and ask that you handle it accordingly,”

The letter included an attachment of the complaint received via email, and Tuggar assured the HOCSF his full cooperation in the investigation.

“May I also assure you that I remain available to provide you with any assistance required in discharging your responsibilities,” he added.

The spokesperson for the Ministry, Amb. Eche Abu-Ode, confirmed the development in an interview with our correspondent on Tuesday.

“Yes. The complaint is true,” Abu-Ode said when asked to confirm the authenticity of the letter.

When contacted on the phone for his reaction, Lawuwa declined comment.

“I am in a meeting. Sorry, I cannot talk, please,” he simply said after our correspondent introduced herself and issue she wanted him to react to.

He has also yet to respond to a message sent to his WhatsApp on the matter as of the time of filing this report.

Also, when contacted, the Special Assistant on Media and Communications to the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alkasim Abdulkadir, simply said, “No comment. The matter is being looked into by the relevant authorities.”

Ajayi, had a petition dated May 29, 2024, addressed to Tuggar, accused the permanent secretary of serial sexual harrasment.

Ajayi, through her lawyer Femi Falana (SAN), called for a thorough investigation into the actions of Amb. Lamuwa.

The petition, signed by Adebayo A. Oniyelu LP of Falana & Falana’s, was titled “Request For An Investigation Of Amb. Ibrahim Lamuwa’s Conducts Of Sexual Harassment At The Place Of Work, Abuse Of Office, Official Intimidation And Discrimination.”

According to the petition, Ajayi narrated multiple instances of harassment allegedly by Lamuwa, which have created an unsafe and uncomfortable working environment.

She claimed for instance that during a policy retreat on October 7, 2023, Lamuwa allegedly made inappropriate advances towards her, suggesting she joined him in his hotel room.

He reportedly continued with inappropriate remarks throughout the retreat.

She also cited an incident on November 10, 2023, where Lamuwa allegedly invited Ajayi to travel to Hong Kong, promising significant personal benefits from the trip.

[Punch]

Malawi’s Vice President Saulos Chilima was killed in a plane crash, the nation’s president said on Tuesday, after searchers located the wreckage of the aircraft in a foggy forest.

The military plane carrying Chilima, 51, and nine others disappeared on Monday, after it failed to land in the northern city of Mzuzu due to bad weather and was told to return to the capital, Lilongwe.

“The search and rescue team have found the aircraft … completely destroyed with no survivors, as all passengers on board were killed on impact,” Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera said addressing the nation.

“Words cannot describe how heartbreaking this is,” he said, describing the accident as a “terrible tragedy.”

Photographs shared with AFP by a member of the military rescue team showed army personnel standing on a foggy slope near debris bearing the registration number of the Malawi Army Air Wing Dornier 228-202K aircraft.

Rescuers had been combing a fog-cloaked forest south of Mzuzu on Tuesday, after authorities located the last tower it transmitted to before the plane disappeared.

Earlier, army commander General Paul Valentino Phiri said other countries, including Malawi’s neighbours, had been aiding the search effort, with support including helicopters and drones.

The group departed just after 9:00 am (0700 GMT) from Lilongwe on Monday to attend the funeral of a former cabinet minister some 370 kilometres (230 miles) away in Mzuzu.

Malawi’s former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri was also on board.

– Widely loved –

Chakwera said he had previously flown on the same aircraft for similar trips. The crew had successfully operated it just hours before the accident, he added.

“And yet, despite the track record of the aircraft and the experience of the crew, something terrible went wrong with that aircraft on its flight back to Lilongwe, sending it crashing down,” he said.

First elected vice president in 2014, the charismatic yet stern-talking Chilima was a widely loved figure in Malawi, particularly among young people.

But in 2022, during his second stint in the job, Chilima was stripped of his powers after being arrested and charged with graft over a bribery scandal involving a British-Malawian businessman.

Last month, a Malawian court dropped the charges and he resumed his official duties.

“Chilima was a good man, a devoted father and husband, a patriotic citizen who served his country with distinction and a formidable vice president,” Chakwera said.

“I consider it one of the greatest honours of my life to have had him as my deputy and counsellor for the past four years.”

Akwa Ibom state government has the largest social welfare programmes in almost every sector in the country, but adding free football tickets could be counterproductive. The government provides free education for all primary and secondary school students with free books, and this has been going on since 1999. It pays about N700 million yearly as WAEC fees to its students and, in addition, there’s a scholarship and bursary scheme for university and polytechnic students.

Gov. Umo Eno has increased the bursary to N100,000 per student from what his predecessors offered. He is also extending generous financial help to all students with disabilities, including those who are not from the state as recently published lists of beneficiaries indicate. In terms of medical care, there is free health care for pregnant women and children under five years of age. Women who have multiple births are also generously provided for. The government also routinely sponsors people on pilgrimage to Israel. It is common to see some persons with the suffix ‘’JP’’ attached to their names. It stands for ‘’Jerusalem Pilgrim’’.

The current governor has gone a step further to provide free foodstuffs to thousands of the very poor across the state. A new body known as Akwa Ibom Bulk Purchase Agency has been set up by law to drive the program whose aim is to offer succor to vulnerable citizens facing hard times. The Umo Eno administration has also introduced a free housing scheme for widows and the poor.

Known as the Arise Shelter Initiative, the scheme plans to deliver 100 homes for the poorest of the poor in the 31 LGAs. The gesture was first introduced by Mrs Unoma Akpabio as a pet programme of her NGO when her husband was governor, but the incumbent governor has upgraded it into a government programme.

It all started when Gov. Eno watched a video of a young girl celebrating the completion of her NYSC with her aged father at home in Obubra, in neighbouring Cross River. Reports say the governor was so moved by the wretchedness of what passed as her family home that he ordered a brand new three-bedroom house to be built for her father.

Civil servants are not left out. Some 150 of them are getting free housing units out of the 236 apartments being built at Grace Housing Estate in the outskirts of Uyo.

Of all these, I detest pilgrimage sponsorship and offering free football tickets whenever the Super Eagles play at the state-owned Godswill Akpabio Stadium. It happened last Friday when the national team played against South Africa in a 2026 World Cup Qualifying game. The three categories of tickets cost N1,000; N2,000 and N3,000. These are quite affordable to the people, but the government chose to pay over N40 million to the NFF to buy off the tickets and fill up the 30,000 seats in the iconic stadium.

This is an ill-advised policy that was started by the Akpabio administration. Gov. Udom Emmanuel continued with it and now it would seem that it has become an agenda of the government. Over N600 million might have been spent on free tickets since the stadium was built ten years ago. We have to scrub the practice because the disadvantages are many.

In the first instance, watching football games (or any other games) at the stadium is a luxury pastime. It is not a necessity that the poor needs to survive. It is, therefore, wrong for the government to fund a hobby or lifestyle for people who can afford it. Second, the tickets are quite affordable and football fans in the state and neighbouring states can afford them.

Third, by asking Akwa Ibom people to go watch the games free, the government is unwittingly shutting out those who are able and willing to pay for the tickets, including hundreds of fans who would have come from Calabar, Benin, Aba, Port Harcourt and other places with enough money to buy the tickets and spend on hotels accommodation. Think of the economic benefits lost. By hosting the UEFA Championship league final last week at Wimbledon, the London economy is said to have gained $68 million.

Putting people on football welfare encourages indolence and is antithetical to basic economics and business principles. I understand the assumptions behind this practice. Football is the people’s favourite hobby, and whenever the national team is in an international competition, it deserves our support at the stadium. The government probably believes that the people are too poor to afford N1,000 ticket; and that it owes us a duty to provide the opium that football matches have become in these difficult times. That’s not true.

Truth is the games are organized by FIFA and it is the duty of the NFF to market and sell the tickets. Akwa Ibom government has done enough by providing the stadium free to the NFF who should actually be paying handsomely for its use. The stadium was built at a great cost and is maintained expensively by international facility managers. That is why it is still as beautiful as it was when it was completed in 2014.

This is not your typical federal government assets that are rotting away all over the country because of quota-driven incompetence. Akwa Ibom has done well for itself in just 15 years. We have an iconic stadium; we have a splendid airline; we have our own airport, with a first-class international terminal and an MRO soon to be put to use. We must benefit from these assets.

Football is a huge global business. It was wrong to have started this football welfare. Now, it may be difficult to wean the people off it, but we must do it. I implore the government to engage a reputable marketing communication firm to drive corporate advertisements for the stadium and discontinue the practice of giving out free football tickets. Interested fans can buy for themselves.

Dauda Lawal, governor of Zamfara, says President Bola Tinubu is not getting proper security briefing on the operations of bandits in the state.

After meeting with the president on March 26, Lawal described Zamfara as the “centre of banditry” in northern Nigeria.

He said the spate of insecurity in Zamfara may consume the northern part of the country if not urgently addressed.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, Lawal said if the government is committed, banditry could be eradicated in two weeks.

“While we are trying to take care of the situation, somebody, somewhere, somehow, behind our back, is negotiating with bandits… as a governor of a state, without my knowledge,” he said.

“When the situation really got bad, I had to meet Mr President and complain one-on-one, and I told him the true situation of what Zamfara is facing in terms of security.”

When asked if he believes the president is “properly briefed” on the actual state of things, the governor said: “Based on the conversation we had, the answer is no. And I had to explain everything to him, what we are going through and what needs to be done.

“Zamfara state has become the hub of banditry in northern Nigeria. If you can take care of Zamfara today, believe me, you’d have solved 90 percent of the banditry issue in northern Nigeria as a whole.

“If we are committed, if we are serious, we can take care of this situation within two weeks maximum. But the political will is not there.”

THE STATE POLICE DEBATE

Lawal said as a governor, he does not have control over the military, police or personnel of the civil defence.

He said such a situation has rendered his government helpless in suppressing the operations of bandits in Zamfara.

“In most cases, you get frustrated in terms of where do you get help from,” he said.

“When you need these people, they would be nowhere to be found. And therefore the best thing to do is to set up that kind of security outfit.

“There are a lot of security undertones in the security issues. Some of you find it difficult to come and say but I know what we are going through. But like I said, sometimes you are helpless and when you need them they are not there or even when they are there, they are given certain instructions on what to do and not to do.”

[TheCable]

Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in 2023, says South Africa’s recent election was hitch-free and devoid of technical glitches.

Obi made the claim on Saturday while making comparisons between the elections in Nigeria and South Africa.

“The outcome of the recent South African election results remains a shining example of what a transparent and efficient democratic electoral process should look like,” the former Anambra governor tweeted.

“With about 60% voter turnout, over 90% of polling open on time, allowing diaspora voting, the results and updates were real-time without any form of technical glitches during the election.

“This demonstrated the robustness and transparency of their system. The seamless online dissemination of results further highlights their commitment to democratic principles and technological advancement.”

South Africa’s national and provincial elections were held on May 29. Later that same evening, results began to trickle in with the outcome eventually announced on June 2.

The elections grabbed global attention as the ruling African National Congress (ANC) lost the majority of seats needed to win the country’s parliament, forcing it into a coalition.

It is the first time the ANC, which has been in power since the end of apartheid in 1994, would fail to secure a majority of the votes.

President Cyril Ramaphosa accepted the outcome, saying it reflected the people’s wish.

Ramaphosa’s smooth concession earned him commendations from political stakeholders in and outside the country, including Obi.

But how factual were Obi’s claims in his observations?

CLAIM 1: SOUTH AFRICA’S ELECTIONS WERE HITCH-FREE

Verdict: False

One of Obi’s claims was that there were no technical glitches during the election.

This is incorrect.

In the early hours of May 31, the results page of the country’s Electoral Commission (IEC) went blank for roughly two hours.

The IEC apologized for the glitch without citing a reason for the disruption but assured that results were not compromised.

The development did not sit well with the uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party backed by former President Jacob Zuma which accused the IEC of “serious transgressions”.

Zuma claimed that the MK party has “proof” that vote-rigging allegedly went on “in the background” when the IEC dashboard crashed, threatening that his supporters would be provoked if the results were not amended.

CLAIM 2: ‘60% VOTER TURNOUT, DIASPORA VOTING’

Verdict: Partly correct

Obi claimed that the elections had a 60 percent voter turnout.

According to the South African Government News Agency, voter turnout was 58.57 percent.

The turnout was a steep decline from the 66.05 percent recorded in the 2019 national elections.

However, Obi’s claim of diaspora voting was correct.

The IEC has been mandated to organise out-of-country voting since 2009 and the process was also used for last month’s election.

Citizens who wish to vote out-of-country must be registered to vote and must be able to produce a South African identity document (ID) when voting at an international voting station at an accredited mission.

VERDICT

Obi’s claims about the South African elections being hitch-free were mostly false. The elections had hitches and the voter turnout was lower than 60 percent. However, diaspora voting was in place.

The Correspondent Chapel of the Kano State Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) has declared boycotting all activities related to the Kano State Government, effective immediately. 

This development followed an emergency congress meeting summoned by the Chairman of the chapel, Aminu Ahmed Garko, on Monday.

The outcome of the meeting attended by the correspondents was unanimously taken in response to the persistent and unacceptable maltreatment of members of the chapel in the state by the government and its agents while discharging their primary assignments.

The resolution reads: “Despite our efforts to engage with the government and its officials to address these issues, we have seen no improvement in the situation.

“Members of the chapel continue to face harassment, intimidation, and even physical assault while performing their duties.

“It is particularly concerning that the government has prioritized non-professionals over trained journalists, making it a state policy to sideline those who are best equipped to handle the job.

“As a result, we regret to announce that we will no longer participate in press conferences, cover government events, or conduct interviews with state officials until we see a tangible commitment to press freedom and the safety of journalists.”

The chapel urged all members to comply with this directive and join in the protest against the ill treatment of members in Kano State.

“We believe that a free and independent press is essential to a functioning democracy, and we will not stand idly by while our members are mistreated and intimidated,” the resolution concluded.

[DailyTrust]

Saudi Arabia Pro League club, Al Ahli are ready to meet Victor Osimhen’s release clause.

According to Italian news hub, II Mattino via Calcio Napoli, Al Ahli are, however, yet to convince the player to make the move.

The release clause in Osimhen’s contract is reportedly around €120- £130m.

The 25-year-old rejected a move to another Saudi club Al Hilal last summer.

The Nigeria international is expected to leave Napoli this summer.

He has consistently been linked with Arsenal, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain.

[DailyPost]

The organised labour has vowed to reject any ₦62,000 or ₦100,000 minimum wage proposal for Nigerian workers by the federal government.

Speaking in an interview on Channels Television on Monday, the Assistant General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Chris Onyeka, described such a proposal as a “starvation wage”.

Onyeka insisted that labour won’t accept the latest government’s offer of ₦62,000, saying that its latest demand as the living wage for an average Nigerian worker remains ₦250,000.

He said, “Our position is very clear. We have never considered accepting ₦62,000 or any other wage that we know is below what we know can take Nigerian workers home. We will not negotiate a starvation wage.

“We have never contemplated ₦100,000, let alone ₦62,000. We are still at ₦250,000, that is where we are, and that is what we considered enough concession to the government and the other social partners in this particular situation. We are not just driven by frivolities but the realities of the marketplace, realities of things we buy every day: a bag of rice, yam, garri, and all of that.”

Onyeka said the one-week grace period given to the Federal Government to review its proposal last Tuesday, June 4, 2024, would expire by midnight on Tuesday, June 11, 2024.

He said organised labour would meet to decide on the resumption of the nationwide industrial action if the Federal Government and National Assembly fail to act on workers’ demands by tomorrow.

He added, “The Federal Government and the National Assembly have the call now. It is not our call. Our demand is there for them (the government) to look at and send an Executive Bill to the National Assembly, and for the National Assembly to look at what we have demanded, the various facts of the law, and then come up with a National Minimum Act that meets our demands.

“If that does not meet our demand, we have given the Federal Government a one-week notice to look at the issues and that one week expires tomorrow (Tuesday). If after tomorrow, we have not seen any tangible response from the government, the organs of the organised labour will meet to decide on what next.”

When asked what the decision of labour would be should the government insist on ₦62,000, he said, “It was clear what we said. We said we are relaxing a nationwide indefinite strike. It’s like putting a pause on it. So, if you put a pause on something and that organs that govern us as trade unions decide that we should remove that pause, it means that we go back to what was in existence before.”

Minimum wage talks

After weeks of failed talks on a new minimum wage for workers in the country, organised labour, comprising the NLC and TUC, embarked on a nationwide strike last Monday to demand a new wage and the reversal of the electricity tariff hike.

The labour unions said the current minimum wage of ₦30,000 can no longer cater to the well-being of an average Nigerian worker, saying the government should offer workers something economically realistic in tandem with current inflationary pressures.

However, the labour leadership suspended the strike for five days after signing a commitment with the Federal Government to resume negotiations and come up with a new minimum wage within a week.

The suspension of the strike followed a six-hour meeting between the leadership of labour and the National Assembly in Abuja, on Monday night.

To fast-track the talks, the President, last Tuesday, directed the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, to present the cost implications for a new minimum wage within two days.

Tinubu also directed the government representatives to work collectively with the organised private sector and the sub-nationals to achieve a new affordable wage award for Nigerians.

On Thursday, the finance minister presented the cost implications of implementing a new national minimum wage to Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, alongside the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu.

Before the directive, the minister described the proposal made by organised labour as “unaffordable. Also, the 36 state governors said labour union demand was not sustainable.

However, on Friday, June 7, 2024, labour and the government failed to reach an agreement. While labour dropped its demand again from ₦494,000 to ₦250,000, the government added ₦2,000 to its initial ₦60,000 and offered workers ₦62,000.

Both sides submitted their reports to the President, who is expected to make a decision and send an executive bill to the National Assembly to pass a new minimum wage bill, which the president will then sign into law.

[Punch]

IN my visit to the United States from May 22, 2024 to deliver a Lecture, I was determined to meet a man I had never met. I wrote him from Nigeria and we agreed to meet. At the crowded Port Authority train station in New York, we easily picked out ourselves; his image was etched in my memory. We went into a locked embrace.

I first heard about him 46 years ago. I was a student at the Methodist Boys High School, Lagos and a frantic military regime was threatening students at all levels with dire consequences if we dared joined the on-going nationwide protests led by the National Union of Nigeria Students, NUNS.

To show it was deadly serious, the regime had not only shot dead four undergraduates and an unspecified number of persons across the country, it had also in Zaria, killed 13-year-old Lasisi Abubakar, a Primary Six pupil and, 15-year-old Alhaji Shehu. An unidentified secondary school student had also been killed in Ile-Ife, home of the University of Ife, now renamed, Obafemi Awolowo University.

To us, the protesters were heroes. When in the new session that year, I was admitted into Ife, the first student rally I attended, was a demand that the four expelled leaders of those protests must be re-admitted to complete their studies. One of them was Offiong Offiong Aqua, the 22-year-old pioneer President of the University of Calabar, UNICAL, Students Union.

Back in 1978, the country was like a conquered territory of the military top brass. It had three years earlier, decimated its own ranks. It destroyed the public service and judiciary through arbitrarily mass sack. It had also proscribed the central labour organisation for three years and banned for life, eleven leading labour leaders from trade unionism.

Finally, it took on the education sector by imposing fees, increasing feeding costs by 200 per cent and generally, tried to transform education into a commercial product only the affluent could afford.

The regime had befriended student leaders and so, did not expect any protest either from the students nor from a populace it assumed it had conquered.

But the NUNS rejected the moves and embarked on “Operation Consultation” to “Operation Consolidation”. When these would not make the regime rethink its ruinous policies, NUNS met at the University of Ilorin to review its strategies and weigh its options. This was where Aqua came firmly into the scene. He had seconded a motion for collective action, including lecture boycotts and protests moved by the teenage President of Ife, Tunde Babatunde. But no firm decision could be taken. So it was decided to hold a further meeting. Aqua on behalf of UNICAL offered to hold the meeting, but the NUNS leadership was uncomfortable because he was the most outspoken advocate of the need to move to “Operation Confrontation”. More so, when he was already advocating regime change.

An angry Aqua announced that if the NUNS leadership did not want UNICAL to host the crucial meeting, it would pull out of the national union. Frantic consultations ensued, and the follow up vote gave UNICAL the hosting right.

Aqua arrived from Ilorin in the night and immediately convened the UNICAL parliament which voted for protest. The parliamentary approval meant the student executive was empowered to utilize the union funds to actualise its decision. Back in 1978, that was no small money: one dollar was equivalent to 66 Kobo. So, the UNICAL Student Union budget was the equivalent of $2.5 million!

The Aqua leadership hit the road and took to the air campaigning across the country for lecture boycott. When the NUNS met in UNICAL, it endorsed “Operation Confrontation.” That led to the historic April-May, 1978 protests.

The protests spread like wildfire across the then 13 universities, other tertiary institutions, on to the streets.

After brutally suppressing the protests, the regime went on a revenge mission. It identified the four core student leaders and expelled them from school. Segun Okeowo, the NUNS President, was detained for 43 days. Ekpein Appah, leader of the University of Benin Students Union and Buka Mbaya, President, Ahmadu Bello University Students Union, were detained at the Kirikiri Prison, Lagos. Aqua was detained in Calabar for months.

If Aqua’s aunt, Elizabeth Weyen Henshaw, later Professor, had her way, he would not have attended university in Nigeria. She taught at the New York University, NYU, and had secured admission for him, but his father preferred he schooled in Nigeria. Now, with his expulsion, she secured a new admission for him. He applied for a passport, but was refused on the basis that he was banned from not only processing a passport, but also leaving the country. Similarly, he was barred from attending the World Youth Festival in Cuba.

At this point some socialists led by veteran journalist, Dapo Fatogun, and labour leader, Wahab Goodluck, secured a scholarship for him to study in Moscow and also got a flight ticket.

When preparatory to civil rule, electioneering began, Aqua’s mentor, the journalist, Bassey Ekpo Bassey, gave him a note to the Secretary General of the Nigerian Peoples Party, NPP, Paul Unongo, who was able to secure a passport for him. But he was still barred from travelling.

In Lagos, he met a sympathetic Army Lieutenant who asked if he had a visa. When he answered in the affirmative, the officer asked him to get a ticket that can fly him from Cotonou, Benin Republic. Luckily, he had the Lagos-Moscow ticket that was part of his scholarship. He got it changed to Cotonou-Moscow.

The young officer in uniform then drove Aqua in a military vehicle through the border into Benin Republic. But they got information that security men were waiting in Cotonou to pick up Aqua, so they drove on to Lome, Togo, where luckily, an Aeroflot Airline accepted his ticket.

After settling down in Moscow, he applied to the Nigerian Embassy that he had lost his passport. This was to cover up the fact that his passport had not been stamped out of Nigeria. He came home on holidays in 1980, but his name was still on the no-fly list. So his passport was seized, he was under house arrest for 14 weeks. Since he had presidential pardon, Presidential Political Adviser, Dr Chuba Okadigbo, intervened and got his passport returned. Aqua returned to his studies in Moscow where he obtained medical post-graduate medical training in Maxillary Surgery.

As my wife and I sat with him in his NYU office where he is a Clinical Professor, I could not but reflect that Aqua who was twice offered admission into the same university, but could not take them up, has for over a decade been producing doctors in the same university.

 35 members of the House of Representatives have proposed a Bill for an Act demanding the constitutional alteration to provide for the rotation of executive powers among the six geopolitical zones.

This according to them is to ensure equal representation and reduce the desperation and tempo of agitation for the creation of states.

The lawmakers led by Rep. Ikenga Ugochinyere (PDP-Imo), made the call while addressing a news conference at the National Assembly in Abuja on Monday.

He said that the lawmakers were also seeking the amendment of Section III of the constitution to provide for the recognition of the division of Nigeria into six geopolitical zones.

He added that they were also seeking the provision of a single tenure of six years for the President and Governors in the country.

“The bill is also seeking reduction in government spending and wastage, efficiency in governance, and national stability by providing a single term of six years for the President and Governors.

According to them, we want the creation of the office of two vice presidents from the southern and northern parts of Nigeria.

” The 1st vice shall be a succession Vice president, while the 2nd Vice president shall be a Minister in charge of the Economy, and both shall be Ministers.

He added that, the financial autonomy and accountability of Local Government Councils by prescribing an independent Consolidated Local Government Council Account was germane.

This, he said would be solely superintended by Local Councils and prescribing long-term imprisonment for any misuse of Local Government funds.

He said that the bill would seek to amend the relevant sections of the Electoral Act to ensure that all elections at both Federal and State levels were held on the same day among others.

The lawmaker said that the bill if become an Act, would ensure that all elections and election-related litigation were concluded within a period of six months.

This, according to his is before the swearing into office of the validly elected person for the office contested.

“Ours is a commitment to building a united, stable, and prosperous nation. Nigeria can and must become a great and modern nation.”

[Vanguard]