The Police Command in Benue, has confirmed the arrest of one Aondohemba Joseph, over the death of Justice Margaret Igbetar, a retired President, Benue Customary Court of Appeal, The State’s Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Sewuese Anene, confirmed the arrest in a statement on Saturday in Makurdi.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the 73-year-old Igbetar, who retired from service on Oct. 17, 2015, was said to be living a private life and was hardly seen in public.

Anene said the judge was found in a pool of her own blood in her kitchen on Friday, with deep cuts on her back.

“On Aug. 24, information was received at ‘E’ Police Division Makurdi, that Justice Margaret Igbetar (rtd), could not respond to calls and was no where to be found. Detectives were immediately deployed for investigation.

“A search conducted within her house at Wantor Kwange Street, Gboko Road, Makurdi, led to the discovery of her body in a pool of blood inside her kitchen. It was also observed that she had deep cuts on her back.

“Further investigation led to the arrest of one Aondohemba Joseph, and recovery of exhibits for detailed investigation,” the Police spokesperson said in the statement.

The statement further quoted the State Commissioner of Police (CP), Bartholomew Onyeka, as strongly “condemned the dastardly act”.

Onyeka further assured that he would unravel the mystery behind the death and bring perpetuators of the barbaric act to book.

NAN also reports that Igbetar was born on Oct. 17, 1950, in Mbape, Shangev-ya, Tsar-Mbaduku, in Vandeikya Local Government Area of Benue State.

She started her career as the Assistant Registrar, Grade I Area Court, Katsina-Ala, Benue State in 1971, and rose to become a Judge of the Customary Court of Appeal in 1995, a position she held till 2003 when she was appointed President of the court.

Igbetar was a founding member of the International Federation of Women Lawyers, (FIDA), Benue State, a life member, first Chairperson of Benue branch and a National Trustee of the association.

The late Justice served as a member, Election Petition Tribunal, Bauchi State, between 1998 and 1999, National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal Imo/Abia State in 1999 and the Gubernatorial Election Petition Tribunal, Kebbi State.

She was also a member of the Committee on Review of the 1999 Constitution in 2000.

The Gender Unit of the Nigeria Police Force Criminal Investigation Department, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), on Friday, raided Ignobis Hotels, Gado Nasco Road in Kubwa, Abuja, for alleged abuse, and endangerment of minors.

The raid was led by Inspector Ossai Ojobo, an Investigation Police Officer, along with officials of the Social Development Secretarial (SDS), FCT Administration and representatives of a non-governmental organisation.

After the raid, the Hotel Manager, Mr Akbueze Chidi and a restaurant operator in the hotel, Ms Priscilla Abuyah, were arrested and taken to the Force CID for questioning and further investigation.

The raid followed a petition by Human Rights Agenda Network (HRAN), an NGO, to the Social Welfare Department of the SDS, alleging that the hotel was harbouring minors and exposing them to sexual exploitation.

Mrs Joy Omokivie, the SDS Officer in charge of the case, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), that the SDS channelled the petition to the Gender Unit of the Force CID to investigate the matter.

Omokivie added that the hotel was classified as a brothel by residents, where young girls, including underaged girls were being brought in for sex.

She said that in the petition, HRAN had alleged that a 12-year-old minor and her younger brother, 4, were staying at the hotel with a woman, purported to be their mother.

She added that after some investigations, the 12-year-old girl was rescued and currently in the custody of the Social Welfare Department, “while the young boy is still with the mother.”

According to her, the raid was part of an ongoing investigation to determine the veracity of the allegations and if found to be true, rescue the minors and prosecute the culprits.

HRAN had in the petition accused the woman, Mrs Immanuela Austyn-Araki, a Bolt driver of abandoning the children in the hotel in the morning, leaving them to fend for themselves.

The NGO claimed that the children eat mostly snacks and noodles until she returns late at night or the following morning.

HRAN added that its investigation revealed that the woman lodged in the hotel with the children for more than two years, exposing them to all kinds of sexual conducts by other adults lodging in the hotel.

The group said that the girl was allowed access to the internet and accessing sites not suitable for underaged children, adding that the girl had an account on Tik-Tok where she uploads adult related contents.

According to the group, men, including the hotel owner, pay regular visits to the room occupied by the minors and their mother, whenever the mother is not around.

HRAN also expressed suspicion that the woman may be involved in child trafficking, alleging that there were under aged girls in the hotel premises working as commercial sex workers.

The NGO, thereafter, asked the police to investigate the matter with a view to save the endangered child and bring the culprits to book.

However, after reading the petition at the Force CID, the manager of the hotel and the restaurant operator declined making any response except in the presence of their lawyer.

Meanwhile, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Hotel, Mr Eze Obasi, refuted the allegation, saying “I am a good Christian and a traditional title holder in my community.

“As such, I cannot be a party to sexual exploitation, abuse, or endangerment of underage girls in my hotel.

“All I know is that the woman in question was being maltreated by her husband and she came to the hotel with her children to seek refuge from her abusive husband.

“This complaint has been brought before me by four different groups and it has been settled.

“I do not understand why police officers will still come to the hotel to embarrass my clients in the name of police search for minors,” he said.

After the raid that ended around 8:30 p.m., the young minor and the mother were not found at the hotel.

The Information and National Orientation Minister, Mohammed Idris Malagi, and theSpecial Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity,AjuriNgelale,started their jobs by inaugurating a refreshing and applaudable departure from the primitive information management strategies of their predecessors. But can they sustain the moral high ground they signposted in their initiatory speeches?

On his first day in office on August 1, Ngelale took deserved and carefully targeted potshots at the rude and crude informational tactics of his predecessors. “Gone forever, by the grace of God, are the days when government spokesmen and women would speak down to Nigerians, would use condescending language with Nigerians, and would display some form of institutional arrogance toward Nigerians,” he said.“That will NOT be tolerated under my leadership.”

His message resonated with a broad band of Nigerians, especially on social media, because since the return of civilian rule in 1999, Nigerians have come to associate incivility, crudity, arrogance, and insults with the job of presidential spokesmanship. To have a presidential spokesman disavow this template of relating with Nigerians is pleasantly surprising.

For his part, Malagi, in what seemed like a veiled dig at his immediate predecessor, assured Nigerians that lies and propaganda would no longer be instruments of information management. “This time around, a process of restoring popular confidence and trust in government and its policies shall not lie in the domain of propaganda,” he said. “In other words, the era of relying on propaganda to propagate government programmes is now over.”

This is music to the ears, especially coming after Lai Mohammed whose entire career as Minister of Information and Culture was defined by a bewilderingly extravagant fondness for willful and easily falsifiable lies. Lai’s first name doesn’t just share an uncanny phonemic kinship with “lie”; he actually embodied lies in the most audaciously disreputable way imaginable.

All government information managers lie, but Lai’s lies were unmatched in their coarseness, brazenness, vulgarism, and disdain for the intelligence of Nigerians, which once caused me to wonder if he isthe victim of a psychiatric disorder called “pseudologia fantastica” or “mythomania,” that is, chronically compulsive lying that causes liars to believe their own lies. A successor who repudiates this reputation is worthy of our attention.

I have written several past columns on the ineffectiveness of lies, intimidation, insults, and propaganda as means of official communication. In a February 28, 2015, column titled “Why Nigerian Politicians Now Prefer American Public Relations Firms,” for example, I wrote:

“Nigeria’s political public relations is crude, vulgar, and intellectually impoverished. No one who desires to change the hearts and minds of people should rely on it. Nigeria’s brand of political public relations, for the most part, does no more than attract enemies, scare away potential converts, and ossify negative opinions about candidates.

“It consists in barbarous, impulsive, sophomoric insults against real and imagined political opponents—and cloying, hagiographic defense of principals. It lacks nuance, is childish, and seems unconcerned with logic and persuasion.

“The performance of Reuben Abati and Doyin Okupe (who in fact describes himself as an ‘attack lion’)—and several others before them—in the defense of their bosses and the demonization of their bosses’ real and imagined political enemies is a classic example of the kind of primitive political public relations that holds sway in Nigeria. In this kind of political public relations, not only ‘political enemies’ come under heavy fire; facts, truth, and logic also become casualties.”

As spokesmen for Olusegun Obasanjo, Doyin Okupe and Femi Fani-Kayode trafficked in what I called an “unprecedented display of ill breeding and rudeness to our elders” and everyday Nigerians and “reckless and irresponsible juvenile bravado.”

Although Olusegun Adeniyi was urbane, responsible, polite, and guarded in the performance of his job as Umaru Musa Yar’adua’s spokesman, the ease with which he defended the obvious lies and fraud of the administration, especially in the last days of Yar’adua when governance basically ceased, made it difficult to take him seriously.

Then Reuben Abati came and started the trend of inventing group slurs for critics of the government. He infantilized and pathologized critics of Goodluck Jonathan as “collective children of anger.”

Femi Adesina built on Abati’s collective slurring of critics. One of Adesina’s most notable “achievements” was the invention of a vacuous, unimaginative, and idiotic insult for critics of Muhammadu Buhari. He called them “wailing wailers.”

As I pointed out in past columns, “Wailing Wailers” is a historically positive termbecause it is one of the earliest names of the reggae band formed by Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer in Jamaica. The band took the world by storm with the irresistibly lyrical force and anti-imperialist content of its music.It betrays a spectacular creativity deficit to insult your opponents with a term of esteem.

Outside its creative use as the name of a music band, “wailing wailer” is an unintelligent waste of words. It’s akin to saying “writing writers” or “singing singers.” It takes unbelievably remarkable stupidity to think that “wailing wailer” or “wailer” is an insult, but it bespeaks an even more astonishing height in the ignorance index to hurl it at an opponent and imagine you have done something great.

Most importantly, though, why should a presidential spokesperson who is paid from the public purse vituperate all critics of a government with a crude slur? What does that achieve?

Well, I can tell you what it achieves. It creates a condition psychologists call reactance. Reactance occurs when people are motivated to persist in or double down on an opinion or course of action that caused them to be threatened with insults.

For example, I didn’t set out wanting to be a Buhari critic. In fact, like previous presidents, I wanted him to succeed for the benefit of the entire country. When I started calling out his missteps in 2015 in the most sympathetic ways possible, I got unwarrantedly violent pushback from people who thought Buhari was worthy only of worshipful admiration and not even the mildest censure for even his most obvious infractions.

The Buhari Media Center (BMC) was created to attack, smear, and libel me for merely daring to call out Buhari at a time when most people were scared of pointing out his weak points. But instead of cowing me, BMC’s attacks emboldened me and activated amotivational state of reactance that compelled me to reveal things about Buhari that I probably would have kept under wraps had BMC minions not set out to serially defame me for exercising my right to comment on the government.

Most critical, independent, self-aware people react the same way if their freedom of thought or action is violated with threats, insults, or other tools of emotional blackmail. In other words, it turns even fence-sitters into sworn enemies and hardens the opposition of opponents. The fact that Malagi and Ngelale appear to appreciate this elemental truth in persuasion and information management is admirable.

To my utter embarrassment, I had no knowledge of Ngelale until his appointment by Tinubu. I now know that he is a young man in his 30s (making him probably the youngest presidential spokesperson since 1999) who earned a political science degree from the University of Kansas in the United States in 2011 and had worked as Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs (and defended many indefensible things).

Perhaps, his youth, transnational experience, and awful experiences in the Buhari regime have helped to shape his new approach to interfacing with Nigerians.

Malagi’s position doesn’t surprise me. As I wrote in a casual May 18, 2022, article when he ran for APC’s governorship nomination in Niger State, I have known Malagi since the late 1990s when I worked for the Weekly Trust. He is by far the best credentialed minister of information that Nigeria has had in recent memory.

After teaching at a college of education for years,he ventured into public relations, advertising, marketing, and finally publishing. Apart from being the publisher of the Abuja-based Blueprint newspaper, he is also the proprietor of WE 106.5 FM Abuja, was general secretary of the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN) and has been a major player in the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR).

So, unlike past ministers of information, Malagi has deep intellectual and experiential familiarity with both public relations and journalism. Of course, this is no guarantee that he will succeed—or be better than his predecessors. Power both changes and reveals who people are. I know of no one who has remained the same after stepping foot in the corridors of power. I’ll be pleasantly shocked if Malagi is different.

For all you know, the praiseworthy words of Malagi and Ngelale may be no more than the ephemeral whispers ofhoneymoon sweet nothings. But the fact that they are unprecedented should invite us to pay attention and monitor how actions match the words.

Niger’s military leadership has expelled the French ambassador, Sylvain Itte, from the country.

This comes amid mounting tensions between the west African country and its international partners.

Itte was ordered to leave the country within 48 hours.

In a statement on Friday, Niger’s foreign ministry said the decision to expel the ambassador stemmed from his refusal to honour an invitation.

According to the statement, “other actions by the French government contrary to the interests of Niger” led to the ambassador’s withdrawal.

However, the foreign ministry did not provide details.

The junta had accused French forces of freeing captured “terrorists” and breaching a ban on the airspace in an attempt to destabilise the country.

The country’s military had also accused the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) of aligning its troops with a foreign entity whom it did not mention.

Niger, a former French colony, was France’s partner before last month’s coup in the fight against jihadi violence.

Niger’s junta also authorized troops from neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso to come to its defense, raising the stakes in a stand-off with other West African nations who are threatening to reinstate ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.

The junta leader, General Abdourahmane Tchiani, signed two executive orders authorizing the “security forces of Burkina Faso and Mali to intervene on Niger territory in the event of aggression,” senior junta official Oumarou Ibrahim Sidi said late on Thursday, after hosting a delegation from the two countries in the Nigerien capital, Niamey.

Sidi did not provide further details about the military support from the two countries whose military regimes have said any use of force by the West African bloc ECOWAS against Niger’s junta would be treated as an act of war against their own nations.

Before last month’s ousting Mr Bazoum, Niger was seen as the West’s last major partner against jihadi violence in the Sahel region below the Sahara Desert, which is rife with anti-French sentiment.

Despite being the largest economy in Africa with an over 200 million human population with potential to make fortunes, multinational companies are exiting Nigeria because of the high cost of doing business and lack of basic infrastructure, especially electricity.

Experts, who noted that even though the ugly development predated President Bola Tinubu’s government, said it was always good to bring the issue to the front burner, especially now that a new government was being formed for the new leaders to act fast and salvage the situation.

Our correspondent reports that over time the multinational companies have been forced to exit the country as a result of surging inflationary pressure, foreign exchange (forex) volatility, rising interest rates, electricity crisis, among other challenges, which have impacted operating expenses and profitability of businesses.

Procter & Gamble, Surest Foam Limited, Mufex, Framan Industries, Moak Industries, Deli Foods, Stone Industries, MZM Continental and Nipol Industries are among companies that have shut down fully or partially in recent years.

That notwithstanding, other experts have a different perspective as to why foreign companies are leaving Nigeria.

They said sometimes, the decision is based purely on internal company exigencies or market-wide or sectoral global trends in labour or technology.

They said the companies’ exit might be driven by sudden changes like the pandemic or economic downturns, adding that it is possible that as some companies are leaving or closing locally, other companies may be coming in or opening.

They said for example, the fintech sector and the digital economy more broadly have been expanding in the country, saying this could be a substitution situation, whereby the decline of one sector is complemented by the growth of another.

However, since the coming of the Tinubu administration, both the president and some of his aides have been speaking on efforts being put in place towards revamping the economy, encouraging Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and also making local industries vibrant and competitive.

For instance, about a month ago, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Evelyn Ngige, said the launch of Nigeria’s first trade and investment policies would boost the local economy and facilitate increased foreign and domestic trade.

She stated this at the opening of a stakeholders’ workshop on the maiden Nigeria Investment Policy (NINP) and Trade Policy (NTP) in Abuja.

Recall that on May 10, 2023, at the twilight of the former President Muhammadu Buhari administration, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the implementation of the first Nigeria Investment Policy (2023-2027) and the review of the Trade Policy of Nigeria (2023-2027).

Dr Evelyn said both frameworks represented significant milestones in the journey for economic growth and development.

She stressed that the ministry remained committed to improving the domestic investment and business environment in order to position the country as one of the world’s preferred investment destinations.

She pointed out that the development of the first investment policy, as well as the review of the country’s trade policy, was a useful outcome of the sustained efforts of the ministry.

The NINP focuses on three pillars: investment promotion, investment facilitation and sustainable development, with the objective to develop the investment policy framework, especially fast-tracking the process of Nigeria’s economic diversification, improving investment and business climate to attract both domestic and FDI.

And in July this year, the Special Adviser (SA) to the president on revenue, Zacch Adedeji, said the government would streamline its taxes from 52 to 10 in order to promote efficiency and accountability.

He stated this during the virtual TOPAZ 88 second lecture series, which had the title: “Revenue Challenges and Opportunities in Nigeria Today”.

It would also be recalled that the President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Francis Meshioye, recently said that more multinationals would exit Nigeria if electricity hike was implemented.

Meshioye, who stated that some international manufacturing firms had already exited Nigeria as a result of the electricity crisis, coupled with the unpredictability of the country’s forex before it was recently unified, added that over N144bn was spent on alternative sources of energy by manufacturers in 2022.

He said, “Now, if you spend N144bn on alternative energy sources in one year, you can only imagine the impact which that will have on your cost of operations. The manufacturing business in Nigeria is affected by so many factors, energy is a major one.

“Manufacturers provide almost every infrastructure by themselves. Outside the major roads, you find out that manufacturers provide water, power, security, etc. So, when you look at it, you find out that the cost of doing business is so huge, that a businessman will ask, ‘Is this the only place I can do my business? Can’t I move my capital elsewhere?’”

GSK could spark another exodus

The recent announcement by British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), to discontinue operations in Nigeria after 51 years has raised fear among experts that it may spark another exodus of multinational companies in the country.

The Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) and other expert bodies say the exit of multinational companies is as a result of unfavourable government policies.

They noted that GSK’s exit dealt a major blow to the country’s manufacturing sector which was already experiencing significant collapse.

The President of NACCIMA, Dele Kelvin Oye, noted that, “While the current administration has commendably set Nigeria on a long-term path to economic progression, it has been noted that some of the immediate positive economic policies of President Ahmed Tinubu have had an adverse effect on certain sectors of the country. In particular, the sudden rise in the price of petrol and abolition of the official naira rate have caused a significant backlash, eroding the already earned income and trading capital of several multinational companies that had established their previous earnings based on the official naira rate at the time.

“As a result, there has been a steady exodus of multinational companies and the collapse of several local companies, resulting in significant job losses and economic damage.”

He, therefore, called on the government to urgently review the short-term impact of its economic policies as they related to commitments already concluded for remittances/raw materials by the affected companies/businesses to reverse the trend of companies leaving Nigeria.

He also called on the government to focus on creating a conducive environment for businesses to thrive and provide access to single-digit short and long-term financing to reduce the cost of doing business while prioritising investments in infrastructure and power supply, provide tax incentives to encourage businesses to invest in Nigeria and improve the ease of doing business by reducing bureaucratic bottlenecks.

He added that, “Furthermore, NACCIMA urges the government to work collaboratively with the private sector to develop policies that will stimulate economic growth and create job opportunities in the country. We firmly believe that with the right policies in place, Nigeria’s economy can be revitalised and the country can become a hub for business and investment in Africa.”

He also called on the government to take urgent action to reverse the trend of companies leaving Nigeria and restore confidence in all sectors of the economy.

On its part, LCCI, through a statement by its Director General (DG), Dr Chinyere Almona, opined that despite presenting international businesses with the largest market in the continent, Nigeria still suffered from worrying economic slowdown decisions which were often provoked by the rising cost of doing business, epileptic power supply, weak infrastructural backing, among others.

Almona said, “With justification, the chamber is concerned that if the trend persists, the nation’s economic growth potential will not be realised. GlaxoSmithKline’s decision critically reflects on the nation’s poor ranking on the ease of business measures, which the chamber has constantly spoken about. It is time the government takes appropriate actions to reverse the saddening trends in the business clime in Africa’s largest market.

“Factor cost, as an integral element of the profit equation, is viewed with utmost seriousness by business people. In the face of rising costs, business people will likely search for cost-friendlier locations. The chamber is inclined to suggest the government take a holistic view/review of the business environment and take steps to make the nation’s business clime more competitive for growth.”

Speaking in Lagos, the DG of NECA, Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, stated that, “The recent trend of business relocation and divestment is unfortunate. Over the last decade, the private sector has been adversely affected by various policy thrusts of government. Many of these policies were either anti-growth, ill-timed or not-well thought out, while others were not in alignment with the country’s economic realities. In more complex cases, we witnessed an era of policy clashes and contradictions and regulatory and legislative strangulation of businesses which left many companies without a clear path for planning and decision making. Operational costs have increased astronomically, heaping more woes on many companies.”

Speaking further, the DG averred that, “The consequences of the years of wrong policy choices are not far-fetched. As expected, divestment, capital flight and outright closures have become the ‘new normal’ within the business community. This is one of the chief reasons why the rate of unemployment continues to soar perpetually with consequential rise in crime and other security issues. When businesses cease operations, divest or move to other profitable and hospitable environments, a large number of Nigerians become unemployed. Inadvertently, the country loses income from taxes, social investment is hindered and poverty holds sway.”

While urging a more definitive and urgent intervention, Oyerinde stated that, “It is germane to state that the government must take urgent steps to arrest this predicament. While we acknowledge and commend the current administration’s effort to address the concerns of the private sector and the steps it took to provide some respite to businesses in specific sectors of the economy, more needs to be done. Beyond the tax reforms activity and the provision of palliatives to select corporate entities, government should, by deepening engagement with the organised private sector, provide the right intervention and incentive not only to attract more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), but to also prevent more companies from shutting down, divesting or leaving the country.”

NECA, LCCI and NACCIMA urged the government to work collaboratively with the private sector with the view to developing and implementing action plans that are capable of promoting enterprise sustainability and competitiveness.

Apart from foreign companies, many indigenous companies are also folding up because of the harsh operating climate.

This is also leading to massive job losses in a country where the unemployment rate is above 35 per cent.

A former Chairman of the Textile Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (TMAN), Senator Walid Jibrin, recently told Daily Trust Saturday that only 20 out of the 175 textile companies in the country were working as others had been forced to shut down.

The poultry industry has also seen decline in recent months as poultry farms are shutting down over the soaring price of maize as noted by the National President of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Sunday Ezeobiora.

A request to the SA to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, on other measures being taken by the government to address the collapse of businesses was not replied at the time of filing this report.

The Director, Press and Public Relations of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Eddy Megwa, has said that the Minister of Arts and Culture, Mrs Hannatu Musawa, who is currently doing her one-year youth service is occupying the ministerial position in breach of the NYSC Act.

Speaking with our reporter over the phone, Megwa confirmed that the minister had been serving for the past eight months in the FCT.

He explained that it was against the NYSC Act for any corps member to pick up any government appointment until the one-year service was over.

He said Mrs Musawa was originally mobilised in 2001 for the youth service to Ebonyi State where she had her orientation programme but later relocated to Kaduna State to continue the programme.

He said it was when she got to Kaduna that she absconded and didn’t complete the programme.

Megwa noted that the scheme would look into the issue and take action where necessary.

Lawyers react

Reacting, Abeny Mohammed (SAN) said the action was a breach of the NYSC Act which stated that nobody would be legally employed or offer themselves for employment without doing the service and presenting the certificate or would have been exempted and had the certificate of exemption.

Mohammed said, “The situation we have at hand is that this person is still serving as a corper and she has been appointed a minister. It shows the inconsistency in our policies and disregard for our laws.”

Similarly, Femi Falana (SAN) said it was a violation of the law for anybody to still be serving in the NYSC and accept a ministerial appointment.

In a statement titled: “A Youth Corps Member is not Competent to be a Minister in Nigeria”, Falana said by virtue of Section 2 of the NYSC Act every citizen who graduated from any tertiary institution in and outside Nigeria and was not 30 years old shall be mobilised for the one-year compulsory national youth service, while any person above 30 was not eligible to participate in the service.”

Details have emerged revealing why the Lagos State House of Assembly rejected 17 of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s cabinet nominees.

Recall that the Lagos Assembly had disqualified seventeen out of the thirty-nine commissioner nominees sent to it by the Governor.

Recall that 22 of the Commissioner nominees were, however, confirmed by the lawmakers on Wednesday.

This follows the presentation before the House by Hon. Mojeed Fatai of the report of the 12-man ad hoc committee on the screening of the Governor’s commissioner nominees.

According to reports, the rejection of Sanwo-Olu’s 17 nominees was a confirmation of a rumoured cold war going on within the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Saturday Sun reports that stakeholders, politicians, and some government officials disclosed that the rejection resulted from a cold war among political gladiators, power brokers, and stakeholders in the state.

Multiple sources claim that the Mudashiru Obasa-led Lagos Assembly only acted on the scripts written by different aggrieved interest groups to pass a message to Governor Sanwo-Olu.

According to some of the sources, the rejection of the governor’s 17 nominees had never happened in the state’s history but happened due to an alleged ‘I don’t care attitude’ of the governor to some issues affecting party members and various interest groups.

A source said some of the rejected cabinet nominees were not going to be shocked over their rejection because of what had transpired during their screening

He said that most of them were not in the good books of their constituencies, and neither did they have any cordial relationship with the party or the representatives of their various local governments in the assembly.

The cabinet nominees’ rejection was also attributed to some actions and inactions of some of the former commissioners during the last general elections in the state.

But speaking on the issue, the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to Governor Sanwo-Olu, Gboyega Akosile, stated that his principal never abandoned the APC.

According to him, people on the list submitted by his principal to the State House of Assembly were from a pool of people nominated by party members across all the local government areas.

While describing Governor Sanwo-Olu as a good party man, Akosile noted that all the commissioner-nominees were selected based on merit, contribution to the party, and competence by the governor, his deputy, and party members.

“All the rumours being spread over the rejection of the commissioner-nominees by the State House of Assembly are mere imaginations of the peddlers of such rumours. There is no iota of truth in them,” he noted.

The Julius Abure-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the Labour Party (LP) has accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of being responsible for the internal crisis in the opposition party.

Naija News reports that the LP National Secretary, Malam Umar Farouk, made the accusation on Friday at a press conference held at the party’s National Secretariat, Abuja.

Farouk alleged that the ruling party has been sponsoring the Lamidi Apapa-led faction and other dissidents to destabilise the party, which has changed the political landscape in the country.

He said the ruling party has deployed all manner of strategies to stifle the LP in order to ensure a subjugation of its chances in the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal.

Farouk said the expelled members who rebelled against the party leadership have gone ahead to misinform members of the public on the progress being made by the party.

He said: “As you already know, the party surprised many Nigerians with the huge success it achieved during the last general election. The party became a household name, all to the envy of the older political parties. You also know how the ruling party, forced itself into power at the expense of the Labour Party and the entire Nigerians.

“We are still in the tribunal challenging both the process and outcome of the presidential election. In order to ensure a subjugation of the Labour Party, the ruling party has deployed all manner of strategies to stifle the party, part of which was to sponsor insurrection amongst some suspended former members of the party, Lamidi Apapa and a few others.

“Their assignment was to ensure that no progress is achieved in the party. The heavily funded dissidents have tried to mislead the courts and some sections of the media to harass the party leadership, but all have failed. Only recently, the Court of Appeal sitting in Benin City affirmed Julius Abure as the National Chairman of Labour Party (LP).”

Speaking on the Imo governorship election, Farouk said the only recognised candidate of the party and a product of properly conducted primaries by Abure-led NWC is Senator Athan Achonu.

He added, “Only yesterday, the Court of Appeal Owerri, which sat in Abuja, while giving judgement in the case brought before it by one Basil Maduka, one of the two aspirants that were deceived by the Apapa camp to participate in their illegal primaries also ordered that the status quo remains with Senator Athan Achonu as the validly nominated candidate of Labour Party for 2023 Imo governorship election. It noted that Basil Maduka has no locus to seek redress in the court as he is not known by the Labour Party.

“For emphasis, you may recall that the Apapa group had hoodwinked and arranged governorship primaries for two members of the Labour Party, namely Chief Ukaegbu Ikechukwu and Sir Maduka, after which Ukaegbu won the contest.

“Maduka was piqued by the outcome of the fake primaries and had gone ahead to challenge the emergence of Ukaegbu. He sued both Ukaegbu and the Labour Party.

“Neither the authentic Labour Party led by Barrister Julius Abure nor its candidate Senator Athan Achonu was put on notice and were not aware of the situation. The case was decided on behalf of Ukaegbu against Maduka. The matter has nothing to do with the leadership of the party or the candidacy of Senator Achonu, a product of properly conducted primaries by Abure-led NWC.

“With this judgement, the pro-Apapa choice, Chief Ukaegbu, had gone to town declaring himself as the Labour Party candidate for the Imo governorship election.

“For emphasis, the court never pronounced him as the candidate of the Labour Party. No court has given judgement de-recognising Barrister Abure as the National Chairman of the Labour Party up till today.

“Meanwhile, the Labour Party appealed the Bayelsa court ruling on the ground that it lacks the jurisdiction to entertain a suit filed by the Apapa camp without putting the leadership of the party, which is known to law, into notice.

“ Senator Achonu, who was also not a party to the suit filed by Sir Maduka but, on hearing about the matter before the Federal High Court, sought to be joined as an interested party.

“However, the Court of Appeal re-emphasized the implication of lack of jurisdiction in a Motion for leave to appeal as an interested party and held that the Motion was filed out of time hence, it lacked jurisdiction.”

Famous Islamic cleric, Ahmad Gumi, has said policies of President Bola Tinubu-led government has left the country in a parlous state and pushed it to the brink of the precipice.

He stated that some policies of the present administration are capable of knocking the nation off the cliff, the edge of which it is now teetering on.

Gumi admonished Tinubu to revise some of the policies before they destroy.

He gave the admonition in a 22-second video clip posted on his official Facebook page.

Gumi asserted that if those tough policies are not reversed, the inferno that would erupt from them would also engulf the government.

He urged the president to consult experts before implementing certain policies, saying he should not depend on sycophants.

He said, “President Tinubu, you have to revise your policies; if not they are going to destroy the nation and they are also going to destroy your government.

“Your political and economic policies, you have to review them. You have to ask people who know better and don’t depend on these sycophants”.

Members of the House of Representatives in the 10th Assembly will get a total of N54bn for constituency projects as each member would get N150m.

According to one of the lawmakers who pleaded for anonymity, the constituency allowances are part of the few privileges available to lawmakers to directly impact their various constituencies.

Constituency or zonal intervention projects in Nigeria refers to developmental projects sited in the constituencies of members of the state Houses of Assembly, members of the House of Representatives or Senators as budgeted for under various Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

Such projects often have banners stating that a project was implemented with the name of the lawmaker.

The salaries and allowances of lawmakers have always been at the centre of controversies because it was often shrouded in secrecy.

In the ninth assembly, it was disclosed that each House of Reps member got N100m, while each lawmaker in the Red Chamber got N200m for constituency projects.

However, amid hardship and the need to call for the masses to endure the hard times in anticipation of the good times and the ‘Renewed Hope’ of the President Bola Tinubu-led administration, the constituency allowance of the lawmakers has increased by N50m.

The lawmaker said, “In the House of Reps, our constituency allowance is N150m. This is the only opportunity we have to help our constituencies with one or more projects.

“We usually don’t have power over the real projects. So, this is often like palliative for us to give back to our constituencies. Many of us often use our money to do all the projects that we do for our constituencies.

“And this year, we are getting N150m in the House of Reps; I don’t know how much they will get at the Senate.”