Today's Headlines: Why Tinubu declared state of emergency on food security — Uche Nwosu, Rotimi Amaechi doesn’t merit Rivers ministerial slot, says Tony Okocha
Why Tinubu declared state of emergency on food security — Uche Nwosu
Photo Credit: Vanguard
Former Chief of Staff to the Imo State Governor and President Ugwumba Leadership Center for Africa, Uche Nwosu, has said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu used the declaration of state of emergency on food security as a platform to cushion the impact of the fuel subsidy removal.
Nwosu in a statement, also lauded Tinubu for his decision, saying that it was the right call.
The statement read in part: “The recent declaration of a state of emergency on food security, pricing and sustainability by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is no doubt a welcome development.
“The President by this action has demonstrated his understanding, and appreciation of the impact of the removal of subsidy on Petrol Motor Spirit (PMS), on Nigerians, especially the economy of households.
“The current food inflation in the country has been a cause of concern to stakeholders, as hope have in most recent times heightened that the administration would quickly find immediate, long lasting, and innovative solutions to the hardship experienced by citizens as a result of this.
Amaechi doesn’t merit Rivers ministerial slot, says APC chieftain
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A leader of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State, Chief Tony Okocha, has said President Bola Tinubu has no reason or justification to give the state’s ministerial slot to either former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, or Senator Magnus Abe, stressing that both men undermined his election in Rivers State.
Rather, Okocha asked Tinubu to pick the immediate-past Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, as minister from the state.
According to him, Wike supported Tinubu’s presidential ambition both financially and materially.
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Okocha, who spoke with journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, alleged that it was an open secret that Amaechi worked for the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Atiku Abubakar, while Abe, who obtained the governorship ticket of the Social Democratic Party, supported the SDP flag bearer.
Tinubu and burden of ministerial list
Photo Credit: The Cable
You may have seen it. The list, of course. Those who think that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not moving fast enough to appoint ministers have offered to help. They have composed their own ministerial list for him and shared it on social media. It’s trending now.
Just one look at it, however, and you would know that it’s an improbable list, even for a Banana republic. It didn’t make sense. Going by the list, not a few commentators are already relishing the prospects of Adams Oshiomhole as minister of works; Nasir El-Rufai as minister of interior; and Nyesom Wike as police affairs minister, among other fabrications.
It might appear silly to ask, but why the desperation? It’s partly because in many respects, we don’t want anything that resembles a return to the Muhammadu Buhari era. It took Buhari one-eight of his first term of four years or roughly the time General Murtala Mohammed spent in office to compose his cabinet. While Buhari was scratching his head, trying to find his footing, the country ran on voodoo, psychedelically called body language, which really meant nothing.
When Buhari finally came round to it, especially in his second term, he appointed a number of ministers – and some non-ministers, in fact – that made people regret that he made any appointments at all.
ASUU faults FG’s ‘biased’ payment of members’ salary arrears
Photo Credit: Guardian Nigeria
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi chapter, has faulted the Federal Government’s mode of paying its members’ backlog of salaries for the 2022 eight months industrial action.
It described it as “discriminatory.” Speaking with newsmen in Bauchi, yesterday, ATBU-ASUU Chairman, Dr. Ibrahim Inuwa Ibrahim, chided the former Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige, for allegedly misinforming Nigerians on his colleagues at ATBU’s College of Medical Sciences (CMS).
Ibrahim said: “To convince Nigerians, Dr. Ngige claimed that lecturers under the umbrella of the Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) wrote to him through the University Vice Chancellor, dissociating themselves from the ASUU national strike. As a ploy, Ngige presented MDCAN as a purely academic union. He hid from the public the fact that not all medical and dental consultants operating in the teaching hospitals are core staff of the academic unit that forms the CMS.
“Under this guise, Ngige made a case to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) for some lecturers in the CMS of the university to be paid. If it were true that lecturers in the CMS were working during strike, this would have given the medical students an edge over their mates from other faculties. Unfortunately, this is not the case, because our members in all the academic units of the university were on strike,” he said.
The lectures said it became necessary for the union to call the attention of the Nigerian state on Ngige’s ploy to divide and break the resoluteness of union members during the 2022 national strike that lasted almost eight months.
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