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Musa: Why I sell fuel at N580 per litre
Super Eagles captain, Ahmed Musa, says he reduced the price of Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as petrol, at his fuel station MYCA7 in Kano to help alleviate the hardship on Nigerians occasioned by the hike in the price of the petroleum product, The PUNCH reports.
Musa announced the reduction from N620 to N580 per litre via his Twitter handle on Monday.
Two months after President Bola Tinubu declared an end to fuel subsidy, the pump price of PMS has increased twice, with the product selling for as high as N620 per litre or more in many parts of the country.
The increase equally triggered a hike in the cost of living and transportation across the country.
Speaking with The PUNCH on Wednesday, the Sivasspor forward said the move was to help alleviate the sufferings of the masses.
“Its the best that I can do for my people here,” Musa said.
“No matter how small the reduction is, we can live better with that. It’s tough now and I know people are struggling to survive daily,” the Eagles captain added.
Musa also hopes to open more fuel stations across the country before he retires from football.
“Hopefully, MYCA7 will be in other parts of the country pretty soon,” he said.
The 30-year-old is Nigeria’s most capped footballer, having played 108 matches since his debut at just 17 in 2010.
He has scored 16 goals for the national side, helping them win the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, as well as appearing in two World Cups.
The Sivasspor forward scored twice for Nigeria at the 2014 and 2018 World Cup tournaments and is the country’s record scorer at the World Cup with four goals.
[Punch]
[OPINION] Ministerial List: To Serve or To Eat? - Olusegun Adeniyi
Tomorrow, 28th July, will mark exactly five months since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was elected. Yet he still does not have his cabinet in place. This says a great deal about his preparedness for office as well as the nature of ministerial appointments in our country. If the basis for appointment was about service to the people and delivering the public good, the issue of ‘pressure’ to which we hear the president is being subjected (an excuse for the delay) should not arise. But perhaps we should cut the president some slack. The Constitution which makes it mandatory that a minister must come from every state already presupposes that such appointment is little more than a distribution of spoils.
Going by Section 42 of the 1999 constitution (as amended) “the nomination of any person to the office of a minister for confirmation by the senate shall be done within sixty days after the date the president has taken the oath of office”. With that provision, the president has only until tomorrow to submit his ministerial list to the Senate. Since the Senate ordinarily does not sit on Friday, it then goes without saying that the list must be released today. But the entire process has become ridiculous. Aside the blatant lobbying by individuals and groups in the media, there are also reports that religious clerics and marabouts are making a killing to ensure that certain names emerge on this list that can catapult someone from penury to prosperity. After all, we know those who used to travel by Night Bus and now travel by Private Jet, simply because they were once on ‘The List’!
On Monday, I was the reviewer at the public presentation of a book, ‘Reclaiming the Jewel of Africa’ by former Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Olusegun Aganga. The keynote speech was delivered by President Olusegun Obasanjo. He spoke about so many things but of particular interest is this line: “If you ask most of our leaders why they want to be in the position they are craving for, you will weep for your nation over their level of emptiness as far as development issues are concerned.” While that may be true, there are those who would also argue that the tone was set by President Obasanjo’s government.
When in 1999, he chose Second Republic Governor of the old Oyo State (now Oyo and Osun), the late Chief Bola Ige, among his ministers, not a few people were surprised. Even though Ige was played out of the presidential ticket of the opposition Alliance for Democracy (the dominant party in the Southwest) which he formed along with others, it was clear that working in a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government was bound to be problematic for the famed ‘Cicero of Esa Oke’. When he started to attack the then ruling party, it did not sit well with some, including his former deputy, Chief Sunday Afolabi (now deceased), who was also a minister. It was Afolabi who made the Freudian Slip about public service in Nigeria while attacking Ige. He said: “The PDP wanted Bola Ige to come and eat. I don’t believe we have done something wrong to warrant such insults from him. Although President Obasanjo is not bothered, we have to tell him (Ige) to stop insulting us.” Ige of course shot back that he was invited to government to serve, wondering what Afolabi was ‘eating’ in his own ministry.
Meanwhile, as it is with the federal government, so it is in the states. In Osun State for instance, Governor Ademola Adeleke is currently being accused of appointing into his cabinet a nephew who graduated from the family’s (Adeleke) University just two years ago—“a boy who has never worked before who goes about in dreadlock to direct the affairs of our Osun State local government service commission.” I don’t know what crime the governor has committed by offering a big job (and plenty of ‘food’) for his young and inexperienced nephew.
Of course, what concerns the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) is that the list of commissioners contains seven Muslims and 17 Christians. “We condemn this wanton blockage of privileges that should go to Muslims and their diversion to over-pampered and over-fed Christians in Osun State,” an angry MURIC Executive Director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola, wrote in his statement. “By deceiving Muslims in the state and engaging in spiritual hide and seek, Governor Adeleke has exhibited qualities odoriferously short in honour and dignity but egregiously long in infamy and bohemianism.”
Stripped of all the ‘odoriferously bohemianism’, what Akintola is telling us is that you cannot allow some to be ‘over-fed’ from public treasuries while encouraging ‘blockage of privileges’ for others. Unfortunately, it is this misunderstanding of public service that accounts for the state of our nation today. The challenge of leadership in Nigeria is also based on this warped notion that being elected or appointed to public office is simply to find ‘something to eat’. The misallocation of scarce resources that follows most of these appointments can then be easily explained by the same logic. When in April 2020 former Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State approved the appointment of 427 additional aides to join more than a thousand special assistants already working for him, this was the explanation from his spokesman, Christian Ita: “The governor has said repeatedly that he only needs about five per cent of his appointees. So, he deliberately creates these jobs to put food on the table so as to reduce social tension.”
But we should not blame Ayade for using public offices to ‘put food on the table’ for cronies. That is the philosophical underpinning for government in Nigeria. Which is why it is always about ‘sharing the national cake’, and not baking it. Leo Tolstoy’s ‘How Much Land Does a Man Need?’, Chinua Achebe’s‘No Longer at Ease’ and George Orwell’s classic, ‘Shooting an Elephant’, are popular literature in Aspen Institute Leadership classes. They are also standard readings in the seminar series of the Nigeria Leadership Initiative (NLI) founded in 2006 by Aganga. While the first is used to interrogate the place of greed in the public arena, the other two speak to public expectation and the kind of pressure elected and appointed officials face, especially in an environment like ours. I have interrogated this issue before and will come back to it in future. But for now, all eyes are on the Villa and the Senate.
After weeks and months of waiting, ‘The List’ will finally be out today. And we are going to witness congratulatory messages for these eminent Nigerians. Yet, it is trite to say that our country is today going through one of the most difficult periods in our history. And if only for that reason, I hope the men and women who make ‘The List’ for the next federal executive council will be those who will contribute ideas to improve the lives and livelihoods of ordinary people and influence social change. God save us from the perpetually ‘hungry’ characters who are always looking for what to ‘eat’!
The Emefiele Lesson
There is a scene in ‘The Queen’, a multiple award winning 2006 British film starring Helen Mirren, that I love so much. The fictional account of the drama at Buckingham palace, following the death of Princess Diana, is a lesson for all power handlers. While Queen Elizabeth II (now of blessed memory) saw Diana’s death as a private family affair, then newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair exploited the situation by reflecting the public’s wish for an official expression of grief. This instantly earned Blair public acclamation while the Queen became so unpopular that many were even calling for the abrogation of the monarchy.
In the instructive dialogue from the encounter (as depicted in the film), the Queen had asked Blair, “You don’t think that the affection people once had for me, for this institution, has been diminished?” The PM replied, “No, not at all. You are more respected now than ever.” Apparently fishing for information, the Queen then said, “I gather some of your closest advisers were less fulsome in their support.” To this, Blair replied, “One or two but as a leader, I could never have added my voice to that chorus.” The Queen was unrelenting: “Because you saw all those headlines and you thought: ‘One day this might happen to me’…” Before the PM could respond, the Queen added, “…and it will, Mr. Blair; quite suddenly and without warning.”
The message speaks to the transient nature of power and how fortunes can change. But that is a lesson those who hold the levers of power in Nigeria never seem to learn. They believe they are invincible until they lose out in the power game. In an untidy bid to rearrest the suspended Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, after he had been granted bail by the Federal High Court on Tuesday, hooded operatives of the Directorate of State Security (DSS) engaged officials of the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) in a physical scuffle. They pushed and dragged the NCoS squadron commander out of the courtroom, molesting him in the process. In the sordid drama that played out in an open court, it was almost as if Emefiele was a merchandise. This clear abuse of power is being orchestrated by some who believe they are now above the law. And that what they are doing to Emefiele can never happen to them. They must be poor students of history.
Just about six months ago, Emefiele himself defied the Supreme Court ruling that the deadline for exchanging old banknotes for the so-called redesigned notes be extended. Emefiele considered himself to be above the law at a time many Nigerians were suffering from his Naira confiscation policy. Today, the emperor is naked. But as I wrote in my column last week, we must see beyond the person of Emefiele on this matter if we are to build a society governed by law and order. What is happening to the suspended CBN Governor is neither right nor defensible, whatever may be our feelings about him.
Under democracy and the rule of law, as I pointed out last week, accused persons are presumed innocent until evidence is adduced in a court of law to secure conviction. Revenge, as I also stated, is not the same thing as justice and state institutions should not be used for such perversion. The lesson is simple, when the most fundamental element and requirement of a civilized society, the rule of law, is trampled upon, we all have no defence against tyranny.
Since democracy is built on the principle of rule of law, no agency of government (or their heads) should be allowed to take the law into their hands on any issue. Besides, when those who ordinarily should enforce the law begin to treat court orders with impunity, anarchy is not too far away. I hope President Tinubu and his handlers can see beyond the person of Emefiele to the danger posed to the larger society by their contempt for a court order.
Protest: Traders Defied Instruction On How To Re-Open Sealed Shops – Enugu Govt
The Enugu State Government has reacted to Wednesday’s protest by traders of the popular Ogbete Main Market, saying they “defied the instruction on how the shops should be re-opened and resorted to self-help by removing the seals”.
The state government’s reaction to the protest which halted commercial activities in the capital city was contained in a statement by the Secretary to the State Government, Chidiebere Onyia.
Channels Television reported that at least two were reportedly killed as traders protested the sealing off of their shops by the state government for observing the illegal Monday sit-at-home order by a faction of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
According to the government, the ensuing confrontation resulted in a protest, which they said was infiltrated and hijacked by “dangerously armed hoodlums and miscreants, who broke shops and looted traders’ wares.”
It added that attempts by security operatives to restore order and prevent further looting were violently resisted by “the imported and armed hoodlums.”A video grab showing an officer of the Enugu State Capital Territory Development Authority (ECTDA) sealing a shop on Monday, July 24, 2023 in line with the government’s clampdown on the IPOB sit-at-home order in Enugu State.
The state government also said that it is receiving further briefings on the development, adding that investigation to unravel the circumstance surrounding the incident, including the reports of casualty, is already ongoing.
It called on the people and residents of Enugu to remain calm and go about their lawful businesses, as adequate security measures were in place to secure lives and property in the state.
The state government had earlier warned that it would seal off shops of those who refuse to open business on Monday in the name of sit-at-home.
In protest, traders whose business premises were sealed trooped out on Wednesday to express their displeasure over the development.
It resulted in a clash with the police who came out to disperse them from the streets.
[Channels TV]
London soccer fans cheer on Canadian women at World Cup
Canada has picked up its first win at the Women's World Cup.
Adriana Leon's 53rd-minute goal helped Canada pull out a 2-1 victory over Ireland.
The Irish took a 1-0 lead just four minutes in thanks to Katie McCabe.
But an own goal just before halftime allowed Canada to tie things up.
London, Ont. native Jessie Fleming captained the side and came into the starting lineup after having missed the Nigeria game with a calf injury.
The Canadians were coming off a scoreless draw against Nigeria in their opener.
[london.ctvnews]
Message to Super Falcons at The FIFA Women’s World Cup
On behalf of all Nigerians, President Bola Tinubu extends best wishes to the Super Falcons as they prepare to face Australia in their second group match at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023.
The President, like other football-loving Nigerians, takes immense pride in the Super Falcons’ impressive performance in the opening match against Canada, a formidable opponent and the reigning Olympic Champion.
He firmly believes that the upcoming match on Thursday will be a thrilling encounter that will culminate in victory for the Nigerian team.
Acknowledging the Super Falcons’ remarkable achievements as a dominant force in women’s football in Africa, President Tinubu is confident that the blending of new talents with seasoned veterans will propel Nigeria’s success in women’s football to even greater heights in this tournament.
He assures the players and the coaching crew of the enthusiastic support of all Nigerians, urging the team to continue exemplifying Nigeria’s spirit of determination and excellence both on and off the pitch, serving as worthy ambassadors of the nation.
[NTA]
Federal Character Commission chair alleges sales of government jobs
The chairman of the Federal Character Commission, Muheeba Dankaka, has finally appeared before the House of Representatives Investigative Committee after the threat of sanctions.
She appeared before the committee on Wednesday and alleged that government officials are notorious for selling job slots.
“Before I came to this place, they were selling slots. The place was like a market, and you can find out from people who live in Abuja if I am lying.
“When I came in, I met all the commissioners, and I told them that they gave us the Qur’an [to swear on]. I don’t want anything that would destroy me or my family,” she stated.
DAILY POST recalls that Mrs Dankaka was scheduled to appear before the committee on Tuesday but claimed that she had a medical appointment.
She was, however, countered by some FCC commissioners, who said she lied about her health status to avoid appearing before the committee.
The chairman of the committee, Yusuf Gagdi, subsequently summoned the Head of Service and Chairman of the Civil Service Commission.
[DailyPost]
FG discovers 1,618 ghost workers
The Federal Government, with the adoption of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS), has discovered 1,618 ghost workers in the civil service. The Head of Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan, in a media interaction on Tuesday on the preparations for the 2023 civil service week, disclosed that 1,618 ghost workers possessed fake employment letters.
Yemi-Esan said that the discovery was made after the introduction of control mechanisms, the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS), by the Service to tackle loopholes in the Service.
School fees hike: Federal varsities remain tuition-free, says presidency
The presidency says federal universities in the country remain tuition-free.
Some federal universities and unity schools recently announced a hike in school fees for freshers and returning students.
The development led to an uproar on social media platforms, amid the ballooning cost of living and soaring inflation caused by some of the federal government’s recent economic policies.
In a statement on Wednesday, Dele Alake, special adviser on special duties, communications and strategy to President Bola Tinubu, said the hike in school fees by some universities are “discretionary charges for hostel accommodation, registration, laboratory and other charges. They are not tuition fees”.
“It was widely reported earlier this week across some news media outlets that the Federal Government had increased tuition fees in federal universities in the country. These reports are inaccurate and not correct,” the statement reads.
“We are aware that some universities have in recent weeks announced increase in the amount payable by students on sundry charges.
“However, the fact remains and we have confirmed that these are discretionary charges by each university for hostel accommodation, registration, laboratory and other charges. They are not tuition fees.
“Authorities of these universities even made this fact clear enough in explaining the rationale behind these new fees. For avoidance of doubts, federal universities in Nigeria remain tuition-free.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu remains committed to his promise of ensuring that every Nigerian, regardless of the economic situation of their parents, have access to quality tertiary education.
“In addition to the Students’ Loans Scheme, under the Student Loans Bill signed into law by President Tinubu last month, which will go into implementation ahead of the next academic session in September, the Federal Government will also strengthen other mechanisms to support indigent students.
“Parts of the government’s plans to make sure all diligent students complete their education on time, notwithstanding their parents’ financial situation, include work-study, merit-based scholarships and grants.”
We won’t tolerate coup, Tinubu warns Niger soldiers
President Bola Tinubu has said the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, would not tolerate actions that incapacitate democratically-elected government in the sub-region, a direct message to soldiers who have held Niger Republic’s President, Mohamed Bazoum, hostage at the palace.
President Tinubu gave the warning in his capacity as the ECOWAS Chairman in a statement on Wednesday, describing the blockade of the presidential palace in Niamey by soldiers as ‘unpleasant developments’.
A source said disgruntled members of the guard sealed off access to the President’s residence and offices, and, after talks broke down, they “refused to release the president.
“The army has given them an ultimatum,” the source said.
Meanwhile, Tinubu’s statement read: “I wish to say that we are closely monitoring the situation and developments in Niger and we will do everything within our powers to ensure democracy is firmly planted, nurtured, well rooted and thrives in our region.
“I am in close consultation with other leaders in our region, and we shall protect our hard-earned democracy in line with the universally acceptable principle of constitutionalism.
“As the Chairperson of ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, I state without equivocation that Nigeria stands firmly with the elected government in Niger and equally conveys the absolute resolve of leaders in our sub-region that we shall not waiver or flinch on our stand to defend and preserve constitutional order.”
[Vanguard]
‘I didn’t know football’ before I met him – Gundogan hails Pep Guardiola
Barcelona midfielder Ikay Gundogan has revealed that he “didn’t know anything about football” before his arrival at Manchester City.
The German international arrived at the Etihad from Borussia Dortmund in 2016 for £20 million and was Pep Guardiola’s first signing after the Spaniard gaffer joined Manchester City.
Gundogan left City last summer after seven years at the club, winning several trophies, including a treble as the club’s captain in his last season.
While reflecting on his time under Guardiola, he revealed that Guardiola had much influence on him at the club.
“Before I joined Manchester City, I thought I knew football,” said the five-time Premier League winner. ”I was 25 or 26 years old, and I’d seen a lot. I’d played in the Champions League final.”
“But now standing here after seven years of Pep’s school, I’d say I didn’t know anything about football before. His influence on the team and me personally was immense.” Gundogan told ESPN.
He also admitted that he needed to seek a new challenge, which was the reason behind his departure from the Champions League winners.
“I’ve known him [Guardiola] well for seven years, but I like challenges and constantly surpassing myself. All that the coach and [Barcelona] have done to convince me is that my desire to sign for the club has grown a lot.”
Gundogan made 304 appearances in all for Manchester City, scoring 60 goals and assisting 40.
[OpinionNigeria]