Nigerians protest food shortage at town hall meeting

 

ABUJA— The atmosphere was charged, yesterday, as participants at the special Town Hall meeting organized by Ministry of Information and Culture, in collaboration with the Alumni Association of National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, AANI, in Abuja, confronted nine ministers, demanding for quick remedy to the current economic hardship in the country.
Some of the aggrieved participants told the ministers that Nigerians were tired of the talkshops and that government should do more to put food on their tables. Speaking at the meeting, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, said 2017 Budget would be submitted to the National Assembly by October this year. 

AGRICULTURE REMAINS OUR HIGH PRIORITY — PRESIDENT BUHARI

President Muhammadu Buhari has said his administration will continue to accord agriculture premium importance through programmes and initiatives designed to motivate the citizens to produce enough food to feed the nation.

Speaking at a farewell meeting with Mr. Hoang Ngoc Ho, the out-going Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam at the State House on Tuesday, President Buhari said the high profile of agriculture in the priorities of his administration was primarily to achieve food self-sufficiency, economic revival and jobs creation.

“We are hoping to motivate fellow Nigerians to work hard in this regard. We will continue to work closely with other countries to re-orient Nigerians towards their active involvement in the sector. We believe that the impressive agricultural developmental strides achieved by countries such as Vietnam, especially after the 1975 war, will be replicated here,” the President said.

ENELAMAH: WE ARE REFORMING NIGERIA’S BUSINESS AND INVESTMENT ENVIRONMENT

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Okechukwu Enelamah has said that Nigeria’s ongoing economic challenges offer an unprecedented opportunity to restructure and diversify the economy.

Speaking on Tuesday on Channels Television’s Sunrise Programme, the Minister said, “I believe that depending on what we do with this crisis we’re facing, it could actually be the impetus for this diversification. It’s extremely important that we make the most of what we’re going through.”

The Minister highlighted the Ministry’s commitment to implementing the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP), as a tool for diversifying the Nigerian economy. “That Plan identifies sectors where Nigeria should be doing more, but for reasons that are well understood, we haven't. Our responsibility as a Ministry is to make sure that Plan is implemented; from Agro-processing to the automotive industry; Cotton, Textile and Garments; and Petrochemicals – the sectors around which we have a comparative advantage."

3 ARRESTED IN ENUGU FOR IMPERSONATING EFCC ACTING CHAIRMAN, IBRAHIM MAGU

Chukwuma Charles Eze, Ogechi Emeka Okwuosa

The Enugu Zonal office of the EFCC has arrested three persons: Chukwuma Charles Eze, Ogechi Emeka Okwuosa and Anokwuru Miriam Iheoma, (F) in a case of impersonation and attempt to obtain money by false pretences from the Anambra State Secretary to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Hon. Prince Casmir I. Ajulu. 

The arrest of the trio came on the heels of a petition that a text message was purportedly sent on 26th March, 2016 by the Acting Executive Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu to Ajulu’s phone requesting him to send a list of names of House of Representatives designates that want their Certificate of Return for the last election held in Anambra State. 

Several subsequent messages from two mobile numbers belonging to Glo and MTN network respectively demanded from the petitioner the sum of N16,0000,000.00 (Sixteen Million Naira Only) assuring him that the EFCC Chairman was in touch and working with the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). 

EFCC Confirms the Arrest of Abubakar Sidiq Usman, Grants him Administration Bail

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC today arrested Mr. Abubakar Sidiq Usman, a blogger, for offences bordering on cyber stalking. The suspect who is the publisher of Abusidiqu.com was picked up at his Kubwa, Abuja home in the early hours of Monday August 8, 2016 by operatives of the EFCC and is currently being questioned over the alleged offence which contravenes sections of the Cyber Crime Act.

The suspect has already been offered administrative bail and would be released to his elected sureties. ‪#‎cyberstalking‬. ‪#‎EFCC‬. ‪#‎abusidiqu‬.

President Buhari and Mr. Abubakar Sidiq Usman

President Buhari relaunches War Against Indiscipline Brigade

 The fight against corruption took a new twist on Monday with the re-introduction of the War Against Indiscipline, WAI, Brigade in Abuja by the federal government.

Unveiling the brigade, the Buhari-led Federal Government explained that the body will aide civil intelligence gathering in the area of insecurity, violence, kidnapping, and other forms of social vices.

The President Muhammadu Buhari-led FG, while relaunched the War Against Indiscipline, WAI Brigade, in Abuja, saying in this era of insecurity, violence, kidnapping, and other forms of social vices, the role of the Brigade in civil intelligence gathering cannot be over emphasized.

Arrest And Detention Of Blogger @Abusidiqu By EFCC Is Troubling - Inibehe Effiong

Information reaching the Coalition of Human Rights Defenders (COHRD) has it that a popular Nigerian blogger and political commentator, Mr Abubakar Sidiqu Usman, also known as Abusidiqu, was arrested on the early hours of Monday 8th August, 2016 by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) purportedly over a recent critical report he published against the Chairman of the Commission, Mr Ibrahim Magu.

We understand that a team of stern looking and heavily armed operatives of the Commission led by one Sambo M. Mangana stormed the private residence of the blogger in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja with a search warrant and whisked him away in a commando style after they had ransacked his house, without disclosing the reason for the search and arrest.

Though details of the arrest is yet to be made the public by the EFCC, it is worrisome and extremely troubling that the commission will arrest a citizen of Nigeria in a manner reminiscent of the dark days of military dictatorship.

Conversation between a Federalist and a Unitarist (Part 2)

READ: Conversation between a Federalist and a Unitarist (Part 1) - Tony Osborg

Federalist: How can you not see anything wrong with our present system? Is it right for Abuja to decide which state should have electricity this week and how many megawatts should be allocated to which state? Don’t you think this over centralization of everything in Nigeria is bad? Why can’t the states and cities be allowed to generate and distribute their own electricity, do we still need a national grid? Why can’t the states have a state and community police system? Why can’t the states be allowed to manage the major roads in their terrain? Where in the world do you see a federal budget contain projects like boreholes and street lights and construction of classrooms? Where in the world do you hear of a federal government employing primary school teachers and feeding primary school students? Where in the world do you see a government act as a regulator and still play as the regulated? Where do you see government running university system the way we run it in Nigeria? Where do you see government admitting and allocating students to universities in the name of JAMB exams? Do you know that there are some communities in Nigeria that have not seen public electricity since electricity was invented! Some have not had roads and schools? Where in the world do you see supposedly rich oil communities going to beg multinational companies operating on their land to come execute CSR projects when such communities are suppose to be richer and more autonomous than the multinationals? Can’t you see that nepotism and prebendalism is a culture under our bad system? Can’t you see that it is wrong for Abuja to be breast feeding the states every month and rather the states should be breastfeeding Abuja? Can’t you see that there is no government presence at the locality levels across both Northern and Southern Nigeria? Can’t you see that everything is wrong with our system of government and that the system favors only people in government and nothing for the grassroot?

THE CHANGE WE PROMISED IS HERE! - LAI MOHAMMED

Being The text Of The Speech By The Hon Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, At The South-East Edition Of The Federal Government's Town Hall Meeting in Enugu on Monday, Aug. 1st 2016

PROTOCOL

Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the South-East Edition of our Town Hall Meeting. Permit me first to thank the Executive Governor of Enugu State, His Excellency Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, most sincerely for his immense contribution to the hosting of this event. By his efforts, His Excellency has shown that the development of our country transcends party affiliation and other divisive considerations.

2 May I also express my gratitude to my colleagues Honorable Ministers for accepting to be part of this meeting, despite their busy schedule. Honourable Ministers, your presence here is a testimony to the importance you attach to keeping Nigerians adequately informed of the activities of government.

Conversation between a Federalist and a Unitarist (Part 1) - Tony Osborg

Federalist: Something is fundamentally wrong with the structure of our federalism. We need to restructure this system and entrench true federalism. This system is not working.

Unitarist: There is nothing wrong with the structure of our federalism. Our problem is bad leadership; bad leaders who have looted our future and have destroyed our federal system. We do not need to restructure the system, what we need is to elect good leaders into office and restructure the minds of Nigerians so they can be less bias, less corrupt and more patriotic.