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City FM is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Programme: CITY TALKS WITH REUBEN ABATI
Time: 11:45am
Guest: Dr. Muda Yusuf (Former DG LCCI)
Topic: Proposed fuel subsidy removal
Date: 27 November 2021
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#EndSARS Panel Report: Comrade Ihekiare points the Federal government in the direction of blame
AdminComrade Declan Ihekiare, human right activist and an independent observer of the EndSARS panel report is of the opinion that the bulk of the blame should go to the Federal government in charge of security agencies.
Ihekiare said this on Saturday on CityTalks with Reuben Abati, where he stated that apology should come from the Federal government.
The EndSARS panel, headed by a retired judge, Doris Okuwobi, had on Monday submitted its reports on the Lekki shooting and police brutality during the October 2020 EndSARS protests, to the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
However, due to trust concerns, a member of the panel allegedly leaked the report to the public.
The Nigerian Army, Police, and other complicit persons were charged in the killings at the Lekki toll gate, according to the report.
The Panel report, has generated a lot of controversies, whereby the counsel for the State and for the victims were controverted.
In a reaction from the state government, “whoever leaked the report is not following due process.”
He expressed his displeasure on the attacks coming from both the lawyer from the state and that of the panel.
The human right activist stated categorically that the EndSARS report needs to be subjected to critical analysis.
However, he made a few mentions of discrepancies he observed in the report.
According to him, “I was not comfortable with the report where 4 protesters were presumed dead.
“I wanted a situation, where the panel will come up to confirm their demise.
“I saw a situation where the panel was saying that we are equating what happened that day to a massacre.
“In my view, a massacre is a massacre, you don’t need to equate anything.
“It is either there was a massacre there or not.”
He added, the report should be all sided, which implies that everybody that was affected in the struggle that led to the establishment of the panel should be included.”
In Ihekiare’s recommendations, both the federal government, Lagos state government and the military need to come up with their own white paper.
City FM is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Programme: CITY TALKS WITH REUBEN ABATI
Time: 11:45am
Guest: Comrade Declan Ihekaire
Topic: EndSars Panel Report
Date: 20 November 2021
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Anambra Election 2021: The Presence of Security personnel brought insecurity - Dr Amselm Onuorah
AdminDr Amselm Onuorah, the spokes person for the Kwechiri N’Oganiru opined that the presence of security operatives deployed for the Anambra stand-alone guber election brought insecurities to prospective voters.
Dr Onuorah made this know as a guest on CityTalks with Reuben Abati on City 105.1 on Saturday.
The Anambra governorship election that was conducted on the 6th November 2021 and supplementary election in Ihiala Local Government Area, in Anambra State on the 9th November, 2021 generated a lot of apprehensions from many people.
Prior to the scheduled date for the Anambra gubernatorial election, there was a report on new media that the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has declared a sit-at-home order in the South East between 5-10 November, 2021 which of cause falls within the date for the election.
However, the President of Nigeria and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, Muhammadu Buhari, had given clear directives to that effect, stating it clearly that whoever tries to disrupt the election will meet with the full weight of the Nigerian State.
According to the Office of the National Security Adviser, any non-state actor that tries to challenge the state's will be dealt with full force. According to the Office of the National Security Adviser.
The election was conducted in 21 Local Government Areas, over 5,000 polling units and 18 candidates of various political parties involved and also over 34, 500 personnel, 45 Commissioners of Police,48 ACPs, 2 DIGs, 5 AIGs, 3 Helicopters. The Civil Defence Corps sent in over 20, 000 men. The Department of State Security deployed its men and women.
The spokesperson of the IPOB in a bulletin said that the sit-at-home order is cancelled and the group encouraged people to come out in their numbers to take part in the election.
In retrospect, Dr Onourah blamed the voters turn out on the humongous number of security personnel.
According to him, deploying such a number of personnel could have a negative impact in an election. “Some persons that didn’t come out may have thought that something may happen. However, their presence helped the atmosphere for those that came out,” he said.
Dr Onourah disagreed When fielded with the question by Dr Reuben Abati, if the presence of those personnel was there to justify the means to an end.
He said, “It is because of the failure of a system that accumulated to the event seen in Anambra.
“The federal government wanted the elections to hold to make a statement.
“The state didn’t want a state of emergency to be declared, so they have to deploy all that security apparatus to conduct an election in Anambra
“If the challenges in Anambra was handled before the election, it won’t be necessary to deploy all those security personnel.
“But at the end we had a peaceful election.”
A comment from Adeboyga Adedeji via whatsapp reads, “in as much as I want to congratulate Pro Charles Solution Soludo, for having the largest number of votes, I think we as a nation has not experienced what true democracy and democratic process entails. This idea of militarization of election, is another way of denying the right of the people in an election. Indirectly paving way for malpractices.”
Dr Bamidele Onalaja, the Lagos Chairman of Real Estate Development Association of Nigeria (REDAN) and CEO at RevelutionPlus Group blamed the collapsed 21 storey building on the performance of professionals involved on the project, also on the part of government.
Dr Onalaja made this disclosure during an interview on CityTalks with Reuben Abati.
According to him, the natural occurrence cannot be dismissed but it is very slim; “according to my experience and observation in this particular case,” he said.
The body of the developer of the collapsed property, Femi Osibona, the MD of Fourscore Homes was recovered four days after the incident occurred.
According to the Lagos Chairman of REDAN, Femi Fourscore wasn’t planning that the property should collapse on him and all the other staff involved.
He said, “There are three blocks of those high rises, 21, 15 and 16 unit of the high rises but that of the 21unit collapsed.
“The project is a multi-billion project that is given to experts. So, I want to assume that Femi gave the projects to expert; the architect and structural engineer.”
He added, “There is a project manager for that project, I want to assume, who coordinates the M & E, the mechanical and electrical consultant on that project.
“Now that Femi is gone, it is not possible for us to ask him questions.
“They should go to his office, get the books to find out who handled the project.”
According to Onalaja, there is a fundamental problem when a project requires 18mm rod and 12 is recommended and if the project requires 18.7 pilling and I am recommending 10; “there is no way such a project will not come down,” he said.
He said, “If the foundation is faulty, what can the righteous do?”
The CEO of RevelutionPlus Group stated that from a reliable source undisclosed, that the collapsed building got approval for 21 storey and not 15 or 16 as many has insinuated.
He repeatedly expressed concerns on professionals involved in the project.
He noted a lot of human error from the part of the foundation from the beginning could have been responsible for the collapse.
eNaira: Nigerians always have alternatives when they not able to transact – Dr. Michael Aderohunmu
AdminCo-founder and vice president of the Nigeria -Malaysia Business Council, Dr. Michael Aderohunmu said that Nigerians always have alternatives when they not able to transact as they should.
The economist said on CityTalks with Reuben Abati that Nigerians need to embrace the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) now as the eNaira, because it is the new norm.
According to him, the idea behind the eNaira is to drive Nigeria cashless economy.
He said, “The world is going towards cashless economy and the objective of that is to make life easy for everybody.”
On the 25th October, 2021, Nigeria became the first African country to launch a digital currency called the eNaira to upend commercial banking in Nigeria.
The digital currency will have the same value as the physical cash we use on a daily basis.
The Central Bank of Nigeria made it clear that the eNaira is not a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, or any other type of cryptocurrency, contrary to popular belief. It is not decentralized and cannot be controlled privately in the same way as cryptocurrencies can.
Dr Aderohunmu is of the view that the eNaira platform is going to be a platform that will drive all transaction, but the challenge is that; “how easy is it going to be for users to access this platform without being frozen or a challenge of bandwidth?”
He noted that the major thing to start with for every country that is going into digital economy; is the availability of bandwidth without interruption.
“As we go by the question, we need to ask is how do we link the advantage of a digital currency into the Nigeria economy itself. Because if you don’t have anything to sell, you are still exposed, the difference here is that it has reduced the pressure on naira compare with what we use to have,” he said.
Dele Farotimi Lawyer and Human Rights Activist declared that protests are for reactionaries and it is a waste of time.
Farotimi made this know in as a guest on CityTalks with Reuben Abati on City 105.1.
It's been a year since Nigeria was rocked by the historic #ENDSARS protest, a youth-led anti-police brutality action.
The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a now-disbanded police tactical unit infamous for cruelty against criminal suspects, sparked the protest, which developed from social media campaigns into street rallies in October 2020.
The protest became a platform for demanding government action against insecurity, corruption, economic woes, and general maladministration blamed for the suffering of the majority of Nigerians and lack of opportunities for the youth. Although SARS activities and general issues of police brutality, including unlawful arrests, torture, and extrajudicial killings, were at its core, the protest became a platform for demanding government action against insecurity, corruption, economic woes, and general maladministration blamed for the suffering of the majority of Nigerians.
The Lagos based lawyer stated that the Nigerian state is deaf to change.
He further stated that he cannot go out protesting to a deaf entity.
When fielded with questions why there was a stacked division in terms of the response to the #ENDSARS protest in the northern region except the Federal Capital Territory: because the protest was more significant in south, rather than a national affair; Mr Farotimi was of the opinion that the northern region will not come out because most of them don’t understand what is going on and moreso they the issue of banditry, kidnapping to deal with.
In retrospect: according to the human right activist, “nothing has changed, every Nigerian is a victim of Nigerian.
“Each of us has become victimized by the abominable insanities that we have normalized
“Nobody can discount the humanity of the policeman.
“I have friends, family members who are police men and I know the deplorable conditions they live.
“When you demand that the humanity of a man be recognized and the man denies the humanity of the person from whom is demanding recognition, it doesn’t work like that.
“Is not about people not remembering that policemen who died, but we should ask ourselves; in what circumstances?
“Were the policemen killed by peaceful protesters for whom the likes of me will speak for?
“Or by miscreants they brought to disrupt the peaceful protest?”
He said, “I believe we have learnt several lessons, when you speak in relation to the Nigerian State and the rulers of Nigeria, it is either we conclude that they either learnt nothing at all or they are very deliberate in responding to what they did learnt by merely reinforcing the extent of their readiness to cow the citizenry.
“In so far as it relates to learning lessons, the enthusiasm of the Nigerian youth that felt the #Endsars movement has not being dampened, but they have learnt that they are not protesting to a benign moral force to whom appeals would elicit anything other than bullets.
“The events that terminated the protest have sufficiently advertised the nature of the country in which we leave.
“The state has done a fantastic job of reinforcing just exactly how little it has either learnt or how little it is prepared to change
“Because the same brutality that led to the end of the protest was on open display.”
Minister Lai Mohammed, Information Minister and Culture has said that were false and misleading as most of those who made the claims of losing people were yet to show up and give evidence a year after such allegations.
In a rebuttal concerning Mr Mohammed’s comment, Farotimi said; “In the first place there was a live Instagram feed, nobody has argued about that.
“In the second place, before the panel in Lekki the Nigerian Army was busy a probating and reprobating but eventually a fact was established in that place, that bullets were fired; fact established forensically.
“Secondly, there were hospitals who have brought their testimony before the panel, establishing clearly that they received gunshot injuries victims from the tollgate, established beyond reasonable doubt.
“I witness what happened on 20 October, 2020 and I listened to the testimony of DJ Switch.”
He added, “What will make an intelligent person like Raji Fashola, Honourable Federal Minister of works and Housing going to the toll gate to discover a camcorder that was not missing, if it is not a furtherance of a fraud to cover up what they did in that place.
“What else explains that level of iodophilia stupidity.
“Where is that camcorder today?
“Enough lies have been told that day to stitch together a very picture of the truth.”
City FM is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Programme: CITY TALKS WITH REUBEN ABATI
Time: 11:45am
Guest: Umar Sani (PDP Chieftain & former spokesperson to former Vice President Namadi Sambo)
Topic: Chairmanship of the PDP
Date: 16 October 2021
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Kayode Ajulo, lawyer, politician and Civil rights activist is of the opinion that some states need that "declaration of emergency rule."
Ajulo made this know on Saturday as guest on CityTalks with Reuben Abati.
The Proposed state of emergency rule by the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami have being criticized by the Governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano and the Ohaneze Ndigbo.
Their arguments were referenced to the killings in Borno, Yobe, Plateau, Benue, Katsina, Niger and even in Kaduna State and yet elections were held in all those states and nobody contemplated a state of emergency in those states.
According to Ajulo’s views, “I’m sure that the legality of it is not the issue, What I think that everybody is concerned is the policalization of the issue of the state of emergency.
“The truth must be told, whether we like it or not, Nigeria is at war particularly some part of the nation is at war and declaring a state of emergency is very parity.”
The civil activist added, “I sympathize with them and I appreciate their sentiments particularly in the sense that Anambra state is not the only state in the federation where we are having insecurity challenges, the question today is that why should it be Anambra?”
City FM is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Time: 11:45am
Guest: Kayode Ajulo Esq
Topic: Proposed state of Emergency in Anambra
Date: 9th October 2021
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Pasto Ituah Ighodalo, Senoir Pastor of the Trinity House Church, is of the opinion that what Nigerian’s need is a good and competent President.
The clergyman as guest on City Talks with Reuben Abati is that talking about rotational Presidency, we are talking about dividing the pie and not making a bigger pie.
Zoning and rotational presidency has been on the front burner ahead of the 2023 election.
Some have argued that the presidency should be rotated between the North and the South
And some other people have questioned the legality of zoning.
According to their substantive argument, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has no room for zoning or “rotational presidency”. What it provides for in Section 14 (3) is the necessity to reflect Nigeria’s federal character in the composition of the government and its agencies. The aim of the federal character clause, as underscored in Section 14 (2) (c), is to ensure the participation of the people in their government.
Pastor Ighodalo stated that it doesn’t matter to him, where the gentleman or lady comes from, as long as they are competent; they are welcome.
He mentioned that “It is an unfortunate reality where some sections of Nigerians for whatever fear or anxiety or whatever the British may have instilled into their minds, feel that except they are in certain key positions they will not be reassured that they have a stake in Nigeria or they feel they may be marginalized.
“Nobody should feel that way and if any President no matter where he is coming from, marginalizes any part of Nigeria or any person in Nigeria, then that person is not fit for purpose. We should be looking for person that is fit for purpose.”
He blamed the root cause of agitation on competence.
According to him, “Nigerians are feeling a little bit agitated that the Fulani wants to dominate almost everything.
“But the truth of it is that, if the northerners or Fulani have shown competence, and a lot of equity in the distribution of things, and not seem to have shown themselves as wanting to favour a group over the other, nobody will be complaining.
“If most of the appointments they have made had been based on competence and not necessarily parochialism or showing preferences here and there nobody will complain, but it is clear that most of the appointments that have come through; have not really being based on competence.”
City FM is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Programme: CITY TALKS WITH REUBEN ABATI
Time: 11:30am
Guest: Pastor Ituah Ighodalo
Topic: Nigeria at 61
Date: 2nd October 2021
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Why would anybody use Femi Fani-Kayode as a compass for their own political position? – Dele Farotimi
AdminThe defection of the former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode has stirred reactions from the public and even from members of the All Progressive Congress (APC).
According to a statement by the Director-General of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), Dr Salihu Moh Lukman disclosed that party members are angry with the red-carpet reception President Muhammadu Buhari gave to the former Minister when he defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC last week.
Dele Farotimi as a guest on CityTalks with Reuben Abati, in his reaction about Fani-Kayode’s defection;
He asked,” Why would anybody use Femi Fani-Kayode as a compass for their own political position?”
According to him, people cross-carpeting from one party to another is normal to him because politics in Nigerian is slave trading.
He said, “When I say do not die in their war, it is because I can see that there is no division among the political class.
“There are no ideological or religious division among the ruling class, both economic and political ruling class.
“What you find is that they have become so syncretic that they have become one and when you hear them shouting or seemingly fighting, it is not really an argument that is based on any idea, or anything substantive.
“It is about how the loot which Nigerian common wealth have become.
“How the loot is shared at any point in time.
He added, “But I saw Nigerian repeatedly allowing themselves to be dragged into fighting theselves, hating themselves, killing themselves, justifying the hatred sometimes in the name of God’ on behalf of person who are not interested in anything that has to do with their welfare.”
Farotimi is of the opinion that Fani-Kayode has acted the pedigree suggested by the man who brought him to national prominence stated years ago.
He said, the recommendation offered by Obasanjo said, “give him (Fani-Kayode) food, he will sing for and dance for you”
I Farotimi’s opinion, Fani-Kayode is of no electoral value and he is not a man any rational being should follow in any shape or form.
“When you see movement, it is obvious that electoral seasons are upon us.
“The political class are making calculations, and the people in power are consolidating,” he said.
He added, “It is nothing to be surprised at, it is just for us to understand that there are no divisions among our political class.”
City FM is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Programme: CITY TALKS WITH REUBEN ABATI
Time: 11:30am
Guest: Dele Farotimi (Lawyer and Human Rights activist)
Topic: Political Defections and the state of the Nation.
Date: 18 September 2021
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