rejects new Senate position

The ousted Senate Chief Whip, Mohammed Ali Ndume, has rejected the chairmanship of the Committee on Tourism offered him, saying he is not a tourist.

Ndume also said only his constituents, who elected him, can ask him to leave the All Progressives Congress, APC, for another party.

Furthermore, he lauded President Bola Tinubu on the N70,000 new minimum wage but said it was little compared to a 50kg bag of rice.

Recall that the National Working Committee, NWC, of APC had removed Senator Ndume (APC, Borno South) as Chip Whip over his comments on President Buhari.

However, reacting on Friday, the politician said he stood by his comments but had accepted his removal.

Tourism Committee chair

Ndume spoke to journalists at his residence in Maiduguri, Borno State capital, on Friday. He was home for the third day prayers for his late sister-in-law.

He said: “As for the Chairman Senate Committee on Tourism offered to me, I want to say that I am not a tourist and not good in tourism.

“As it is, I have spent over 10 years without going to any foreign countries. I have never been to the United Kingdom, UK. Even the United States of America which I went was when I was schooling there.

“I am happy; yesterday the President approved the minimum wage to N70,000 only. It is a good move. But the minimum wage is still minimal compared to a 50kg bag of rice which costs over N70,000.”

On his removal, he said: “I had wanted to react. But I was mourning. I now deem it feet to do so.
“I am a democrat and a realist, and someone who always says the truth no matter whose ox is gored.

“According to former US President, Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, and I quote ‘Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else’.

‘I stand by my words’

Ndume continued: “Therefore, I have not regretted what I said during my interview with Arise TV. I thank all Nigerians who took to their social media platforms and groups who issued a press statement aligning with my statement regarding excruciating hunger and insecurity under President Bola Tinubu.

“Secondly, the NWC of our great party, APC recommended to the Senate that I should be removed, which they did, I took that as an act of God. Because it is God that gave me that mandate as Chief Whip.
“So I bear no grudges about what transpired. After all, I did not contest to be the Chief Whip or to be the Vice Chairman of the Appropriation Committee. Rather, I contested to be a senator representing southern Borno and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“So it is not that am desperate. I am over 64 years old now, and I thank God.

… on joining PDP

“On the advice(s) that I am free to join the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, or any political party of my choice, I want to reiterate that, I am one of the Founding members of the APC.
“It is my people, my constituency and teaming supporters, that will decide for me whether to stay in APC, join another party or quit politics. Whatever their advice, is what I will work with.

“On whether I will take the matter to court, I want to say that, I will not go to court. I surrendered my case to Almighty Allah (God),” Ndume stated.

However, Ndume called on his supporters and teaming Nigerians to continue to pray for God to have mercy on the masses, restore peace in the land, and to remain calm and law-abiding always as things unfold.

Philip Shaibu, reinstated deputy governor of Edo, says he is now “an unofficial member” of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Shaibu spoke in a chat with Arise TV’s Good Morning Show on Friday.

On Wednesday, a federal high court in Abuja ordered Shaibu’s reinstatement as deputy governor of Edo following his impeachment in April.

In his first public appearance after the judgment, Shaibu’s convoy was attacked in Benin City by suspected gunmen, with one police officer killed.

Shaibu, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was with Monday Okpebholo, the APC candidate for the September 21 governorship election in Edo, when the incident occurred.

Asked about his relationship with the APC governorship candidate, Shaibu said his “spirit” has left the PDP.

He added that he is “as good as being a member of APC” and “the only thing is that I have not officially left PDP”.

“For now, I am PDP. But going forward, if I declare for APC, it means that I have declared full support for Okpebholo,” Shaibu said.

“I am as good as being a member of APC, I can tell you that. I have two legs in APC. The only thing is that I have not officially left PDP. I am an unofficial member of APC. My spirit has left PDP.”

Shaibu was impeached after falling out with Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo state.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) says President Bola Tinubu agreed to a N250,000 minimum wage proposal on the condition that the pump price of petrol would be increased.

Speaking in an interview with Channels Television on Thursday, Joe Ajaero, NLC president, said labour leaders rejected the president’s condition because it would exacerbate the current hardship.

On Thursday, Tinubu approved N70,000 as the new minimum wage for workers.

The approval was announced after Tinubu met with Ajaero and Festus Osifo, president of the TUC, at the presidential villa in Abuja.

The federal government will send a minimum wage bill to the national assembly next week.

Speaking on the development, Ajaero said labour leaders accepted the N70,000 offer because of the other benefits attached, and the three-year review period.

“Accepting N70,000 was the best way to make sure that we save Nigerians from further hardship,” Ajaero said.

“At the last meeting, the president brought a proposal that ‘I will give you guys N250,000, if you allow me to equally increase the pump price of petroleum products’ and we said no that we need to go and consult.

“Today, we went there to tell him ‘no’ and that the labour movement can make sacrifices without allowing Nigerians to suffer further on the increase of pump price of petroleum products.”

The NLC president said the current minimum wage regime became invalid on April 18, 2024, and that government will pay the arrears when a new wage regime kicks in.

BACKGROUND

Over the past few months, federal and state governments, organised labour, and the private sector have been negotiating a new minimum wage.

Initially, organised labour proposed N615,500 and N494,000 as the new national minimum wage, citing inflation and the prevailing economic hardship.

The federal government proposed N62,000, which was rejected.

The labour unions had insisted on N250,000 as the living wage.

The federal government asked the labour unions to demand a more realistic and sustainable minimum wage.

On Thursday, the tripartite committee agreed on N70,000 as the new minimum wage.

Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni, has charged Nigerian youths in the North East region to shelve any plan of embarking on another round of protests, saying such a move would be dangerous and counterproductive.

The governor, through his Senior Special Assistant, Digital and Strategic Communications, Yusuf Ali, also charged the youths with the responsible use of social media in shaping positive narratives about the state and the country.

Buni gave the charge during the launch of the Ethical and Re-Orientation Campaign (Operation Gyaran Hali), organised by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Ethical Re-Orientation in Damaturu.

He said no Nigerian youth, especially from the North East part of the country, in his right senses will stage a protest that will disturb the hard-earned peace that people are enjoying in the North East after years of Boko Haram insurgency.

He added that the North East part of the country was yet to recover from the impact of the deadly Boko Haram insurgency, which has left the region in ruins with millions of people’s lives and property worth billions destroyed.

“We all have not forgotten what we have gone through during the dark days of the insurgency. Only those who have no senses will pray to go back to those years when people were running for their dear lives not to talk of what to eat,” Buni said.

According to him, another round of protests will worsen the already precarious security situation and economic hardship currently bedevilling the North East region and country.

The governor said his administration has taken bold steps in training youths on the responsible use of social media and providing tools for them to key into the digital economy.

He noted that the Yobe State Information Technology Development Agency, YITDA, is also working to engage more youths in its drive to provide digital skills to the people.

The governor called on traditional rulers, religious leaders, and parents to rise to the responsibility, of rebuilding the eroding culture of discipline, decency, and righteousness in the youth for a better future.

The Organised Private Sector, OPS, has reacted to the new N70,000 minimum wage adopted by the Federal Government.

DAILY POST had reported that President Bola Tinubu on Thursday approved N70,000 minimum wage for Nigerian workers, with a promise to review the national minimum wage law every three years.

Reacting, the spokesperson of OPS, and Director General of the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, NECA, Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, warned that members cannot pay the N70,000 national minimum wage announced by the Federal Government without support. 

He was quoted as saying: “While we commend the President for putting to rest the immediate issue of the National Minimum Wage, we also note, most importantly, his commitment to support the sub-nationals and the organised private sector to pay the new wage.”

The Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, has accepted 16 years as the admission age into tertiary institutions for the 2024/2025 academic session.

Mamman who had earlier pegged the admission age of undergraduates to 18, however made a u-turn after protests from stakeholders at the 2024 policy meeting organised by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

The minister succumbed following the argument that students under the age of 18 had already registered, sat and passed the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and were awaiting admission.

The meeting held on Thursday in Abuja and had in attendance the JAMB Registrar, Ishaq Oloyede, vice chancellers, registrars and other stakeholders.

Leading the motion against the minister’s pronouncement, Professor Kayode Ijiadunola, who got massive support from other heads, registrars and admission officers participating in the policy meeting, proposed 16 as the minimum age requirement for admission into tertiary institutions.

“What happens to those who have written this year’s exams and passed their exams? We reject 18 years as the minimum age requirement and are proposing 16 years,” he said.

While the hall erupted in support of 16 years as a minimum requirement, the Registrar of JAMB asked where parents and candidates were rushing to.

“The only point is they have taken examinations and at that time they were not told or aware and therefore if we want to enforce it, it should be from subsequent years,” Professor Oloyede said.

The minister in response says, “I can work with that but I want to remind you of one thing, even that argument cannot stand if we want to go by the law which states 6-3-3-4 as our system of education, it won’t stand but for practical reasons, for this year, I will allow it to stand.”

Reiterating the minister’s decision amidst resounding applause, Professor Oloyede added, “We thank the minister for conceding but from next year we will enforce it.”

Professor Mamman, while delivering his address earlier as the chairman of the 2024 Joint Admissions Matriculation Board’s (JAMB) policy meeting on Education, had called for the enforcement of 18 years as the new minimum admission age for admission into tertiary institutions in the country.

Nasir el-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna, has asked John Tsoho, the chief judge of the federal high court, to reassign his fundamental human rights case to another judge.

In June, el-Rufai sued the Kaduna house of assembly over the allegation that his administration diverted N423 billion when he was the governor of the state.

The former governor, through Abdulhakeem Mustapha, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), filed the fundamental rights suit at the federal high court in Kaduna.

The matter came up for a hearing on July 8 but was adjourned after proceedings to July 17 by agreement of counsel.

However, according to a letter signed by Adetayo Adeyemo and addressed to the chief judge, the court did not sit on July 17.

“On the said 17th of July 2024, our principal, A.U. Mustapha, SAN, appeared in court with S.S. Umoru, Esq., and Habib Dauda, Esq., having arrived from Lagos a day earlier, but we were informed that the court would not sit. As a result, he proceeded back to Lagos,” the letter reads.

Adeyemo said they later got information that the court would sit on July 18.

“In view of this extremely short time, we caused a letter of adjournment to be written and filed in court. The said letter was filed and served on the court and all the counsel in the matter,” he said.

Nevertheless, Adeyemo said R.M. Aikawa, the presiding judge, went ahead to hear the suit on Thursday, allowing the respondents to adopt and adumbrate their processes.

“The action of the presiding judge to hear the matter without the attendance and appearance of the applicant smacks of extreme bias, injustice, and denial of a fair hearing against the applicant for a lot of reasons,” he said.

“The applicant was not put on notice for the proceedings of 18th of July, 2024 as expressly explained in the letter of adjournment. We only got a whiff of the hearing on the night of 17th of July which is an extremely short time for us to appear in court.

“Service of hearing notice in a matter is sacrosanct, and our courts have held severally that every party must be put on notice before his case can be heard, and this was done without putting the applicants’ counsel on notice.

“Equally important is the fact that the applicant was not given an opportunity to respond to the 1st respondent’s counter-affidavit and written address.

“The 1st respondent filed his processes out of time and followed same up with an application for an extension of time. Thus, it is elementary that the applicant’s time to respond to the processes would begin to count upon the grant of the application for an extension of time.

“In view of the foregoing, we humbly apply for a transfer of this matter from the trial court presided over by honourable justice R.M. Aikawa, whereby the relevant applications can be heard as the applicant has lost confidence in the judge to continue to hear and determine the matter. Justice must not only be done but must also be seen to be done.

“Having expressly refused to put the applicant on notice before hearing the matter and proceeding to hear the same when the applicant was still within time to respond to the 1st respondent’s application, the average man on the street could see which way the judge is headed.”

In April, the Kaduna assembly inaugurated a 13-member committee to examine the loans, grants, and project implementation in the state during el-Rufai’s tenure.

The lawmakers said most of the loans obtained and projects implemented did not follow the “due process”.

They also called for the prosecution of some of the commissioners and officials who worked under el-Rufai.

The National Orientation Agency (NOA) says it has identified sponsors of the proposed nationwide protest.

There have been reports that some Nigerians, under various bodies, are planning a nationwide protest between August 1 and 10 against the rising cost of living and the economic hardship in the country.

In a statement on Thursday, Paul Odenyi, deputy director of press at NOA, said the agency has “successfully” identified the sponsors of the proposed nationwide protest and likely flashpoints where it may occur.

Odenyi quoted Lanre Issa-Onilu, director-general (DG) of the agency, as saying that the protest promoters intend to “project Nigeria as an unstable country to the international community”.

Issa-Onilu urged the promoters of the proposed nationwide protests to pursue dialogue instead of recourse to disorder.

“The identities of many of the brains behind the protest have been known, along with their collaborators who are safely residing abroad, and the government is taking necessary actions to stop their subversive plans,” the statement reads.

“The intentions of the elements behind the planned protest are not about governance or the state of the economy but a decoy to destabilise the country, cause mayhem, and carry out arson, killings, and maiming of innocent citizens for narrow political reasons.

“The NOA is intensifying efforts in civil intelligence gathering and sensitisation of community leaders, parents, and youths across the 774 local governments on the need for vigilance and collective preventive actions.”

On July 3, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said a “shadowy group” was organising a protest against its operations.

Subsequently, NOA announced that it had mobilised 4,000 of its personnel nationwide to track the activities of the group organising the protest.

…Orders 50% slash on grains

… Says Niger don’t rely on FAAC for projects

Following the planned nationwide protest against hunger and economic hardship, the Governor of Niger State, Mohammed Umaru Bago has disclosed that the youths of the state will not be joining their counterparts in other parts of the country.

New Telegraph reports that August 1st to 10th of this year has been slated for the nationwide protest.

Speaking at a town hall meeting with stakeholders at the Justice Legbo Kutigi conference centre in Minna on Thursday the Governor said “Our youths are peaceful and would not be drawn into any protest.”

Accordingly, he said “We, as youths of Niger state have distanced ourselves from the nationwide protest because we are peaceful and want peace and tranquillity.

You can start demonstrations but you cannot end demonstrations. To youths who are agitating for this protest, let us end this agitation, let us communicate and dialogue on the best way forward.”

The governor then announced the release of 50,000 metric tonnes of grains which he said would be sold at 50 per cent of its current price.

In his words: “We have over 100, 000 metric tonnes of food in our reserves, we will be releasing 50,000 metric tonnes to be sold at 50 per cent of its current price. And before the end of the year, we will slash food price by 90 per cent”.

Also, the Governor of Niger state declared his support for the autonomy of local governments but urged them to sit up as several of them could not pay salaries for a year.

Speaking on the reliance on Federal Allocation, Governor BAGO said “Niger state government does not depend on FAAC to finance its projects or move the state forward.

I do not need FAAC in Niger state. The roads I am building, the projects I have undertaken is not being done by FAAC. We are producing and that is the secret behind what we are doing. There are people who have invested in Niger state in the next five years.

“The food I am giving out at 50 per cent subsidy was originally meant for export but due to the hardship faced by the people, we have opened our warehouses to feed Nigerlites.”

The Emir of Bida and the Chairman of the council of traditional rulers of Niger state, Alhaji Abubakar Yahaya said that protest is not a way to go urging the youths not to join in the temptation of joining the planned nationwide protest.

The Speaker of the House of Assembly, Honorable Abdulmalik Sarkindaji in his address also called on the youths of the state not to be part of the protest stating that the state will organize programmes for the youths to engage in while others are protesting in other states.

Also, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria CAN Niger state, Most Rev. Dr. Bulus Dauwa Yohanna admonished Nigerlites to embrace whatever would lead to peace.

According to him “let us remain peaceful and pray for the state, the government and then support government’s programmes and policies.”

Governor Bago presented cars to members of the House of Assembly, Commissioners, Judges, Chief Imam of the state, the state CAN Chairman, and Service Chiefs.

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar says the national assembly is becoming an “enabler of executive recklessness”.

In a post on X on Thursday, Abubakar condemned the removal of Ali Ndume, senator representing Borno south, as the chief whip of the senate.

On Wednesday, Tahir Monguno, senator representing Borno north, took Ndume’s position following a request by Abdullahi Ganduje, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and Ajibola Basiru, national secretary of the party.

Ndume has been critical of the government over the state of the nation with his recent claim that the administration of President Bola Tinubu is populated by kleptocrats.

Reacting to Ndume’s removal as the senate chief whip, the former vice-president alleged the Tinubu-led administration is clamping down on people speaking truth to power.

“In the evolution of systems of government, a major concern for thinkers was a governmental framework that will reduce the highhandedness of the executive arm of government,” he wrote.

“It was thought, and rightly so too, that a participatory approach to governance, such that will make the government derive its legitimacy from the people will better serve the interest of the masses.

“And thus, to make sure that the executive does not go overboard in the application of its powers, the legislative arm of government was conceived as a means of protecting the people from the authoritarian tendencies of wielders of state powers.

“Regrettably, however, the democracy in Nigeria in the current administration of President Bola Tinubu has become an anathema to that general principle of democracy as providing primary protection for the people against executive excesses.

“This ugly tendency is being manifested by the steady posturing of our National Assembly, especially the Senate, of taking a reverse course in its core function and becoming a puppet in the hands of the President.

“It is uncharitable that whenever members of the Senate stand on the floor of the red chamber to perform their statutory duty of calling the executive to order, they are immediately reprimanded for so doing.

“When Senator Abdul Ningi called attention of the country to the incident of budget padding in the 2024 Appropriation bill, rather than calling for a thorough investigation into the observation, the reaction of the Senate was to hand him a suspension.

“Today, the people of Nigeria are victims of ambiguous budget framework upon which appropriations for the current fiscal year are hinged in the face of a multiplicity of appropriations.

“Only yesterday, Senator Ali Ndume called for the President to wake up to his responsibilities and provide succour to address the biting hunger and poverty in the country. Ironically, the response of the senate to his patriotic warning is to relieve him of his principal office as the Chief Whip of the Senate.

“Also, despite persistent solicitations that government put its priorities on cancelling the excruciating hardship in the land and suspend the idea of spending scarce resources on the purchase of new aircraft for the presidential fleet, the Senate took a stand against the people and ignored the voices of altruism by decorating the President with controversial purchases of an aircraft and a yacht amidst the worst material conditions of the average citizen in the history of our country.

“We are, therefore, beginning to see a pattern in which the National Assembly has become an enabler of executive recklessness, and the concerns of the people stand in the nadir of priority list of the legislature. This emerging reality must stop.”

Abubakar said the nation’s democracy is being “compromised” by an “unholy alliance” between the executive and the legislature and “portends a dictatorship that will worsen a lot of the people”.