Insecurity: Defence Minister’s comment has justified Igboho’s action – Security expert

 

A security expert and risk consultant, Mr. Onyekachi Adekoya has revealed that the emergence of Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho to tackle the current security situation in the South-West is as a result government failure.

He also added that the recent comment by Major General Bashir Magaji (rtd.) the country’s Minister of Defence, on the Kagara school abduction, that every Nigerian should defend themselves has further justified Igboho’s actions.

Speaking Friday morning on a radio current affairs programme in Osogbo, Mr. Adekoya noted that there was a need to rejig the nation’s security architecture and allow for the creation of state police.

According to him, “the federal police has been overburdened and the policing structure has failed. The governors must have a say in the security situation in their states.

“Community policing is the way forward and the solution is a decentralised police if not self-help will become the norm in the country with regards to the comment of the Minister of Defence.”

While observing that most local government chairmen don’t reside in their domain but at the capital of their various states, he maintained that there was need to hold the local government chairmen, the state governors and the president responsible in order to put them in check.

The security expert who disclosed that the problem of security has proved too difficult for the nation to handle charged the governors to rise up to the occasion as every state in the federation is facing one form of challenge or the other. He also added that the macro economic conditions may be responsible for the trend.

He explained that due to security challenges and the ongoing operations in the North East and North West, much pressure has been put on the terrorists and bandits, yet the military has been overwhelmed.

“These ongoing operations has now enabled the creation of terrorists cells in several parts of the country who have now turned it into a commercial venture.

“Kidnapping is becoming a lucrative business and banditry is a hydra headed problem in Nigeria now.”

He accused politicians of being the problem in the country and charged Nigerians to hold them accountable for the reckless words they utter.

On the herders crisis, Adekoya opined that it is not an expansionist or socioeconomic problem.

“Some persons are the ones sowing the seeds of discord. This crisis is not an expansionist problem. The herders are also victims of political manipulations,” he added.

- DAILY POST

AREWA BUSINESS VENTURE !! Gumi asks FG to grant bandits ‘blanket amnesty’

 

Ahmad Gumi, prominent Islamic cleric, has asked the federal government to grant “blanket amnesty” to bandits.

Gumi made the comment while addressing journalists on Friday after meeting with Abubakar Bello, Niger state governor.

He had met with some suspected bandits in the state over the abduction of some students of Government Science College, Kagara, Niger.

The cleric, who had claimed that bandits learnt kidnapping from Niger Delta militants, advised the government to extend amnesty to bandits as it was done to militants.

He said anyone who goes ahead with criminal activities after amnesty has been granted will be dealt with.

“The outcome of the meeting was very positive because you have a warring faction saying that they have complaints and grievances which are very simple. There is hope that we can resolve this,” Gumi said.

“I appeal to the government and recommend that government should do to them exactly what they did to the Niger delta militants and give them a blanket amnesty. Then if anybody will continue we will deal with him.”

- THECABLE

LaLiga: Messi advised to leave Barcelona immediately

 

Former Real Madrid defender, Oscar Ruggeri, has urged Barcelona captain, Lionel Messi, to leave Camp Nou immediately his contract expires this summer.

Rugger, a fellow compatriot with Messi, alleged that Barcelona have mistreated the Argentine captain, adding that the Catalan club is not respected any more by opponents in Europe.

According to him, Barcelona kicked Messi’s close friend, Luis Suarez, out of the club last summer.

Speaking ahead of Barcelona’s La Liga clash with Cadiz on Sunday, Ruggeri told ESPN: “Messi has to leave the club [Barcelona].

“He’s still the best, but all the teams have lost respect for Barcelona.

“It is over. He has to go, they did a lot of things to him, and we have come to this.

“They kicked out [Luis Suarez] and forgot he’s [his] friend, [part of] the family. Suarez is a scorer. You can’t kick him out. Not many players are at Suarez’s level nowadays.

“Now Messi wants to come to Argentina before it was the other way around. Now he would shoot [someone] to come to the national team before he escaped from it. He’s lost respect for Barcelona.”

- DAILY POST

U.S officially rejoins Paris Climate Agreement

 

The U.S. on Friday officially re-entered the Paris Climate Agreement, nearly one month after U.S. President Joe Biden took office and immediately pledged to re-enter the deal.

“Now, as momentous as our joining the Agreement was in 2016 and as momentous as our rejoining is today what we do in the coming weeks, months, and years is even more important,’’ Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

“Climate change and science diplomacy can never again be ‘add-ons’ in our foreign policy discussions,’’ Blinken added.

The Paris agreement was negotiated during the Obama administration’s final term in office, when Biden was vice president.

Former U.S. president Donald Trump took the U.S. out of the accords in 2017, arguing that it put too many limits on what U.S businesses could do.

The Paris agreement’s long time lag meant that the U.S. did not formally exit the deal until November 2020.

The U.S. is the only country out of the 196 signatories to have left the agreement.

It is also the world’s largest contributor of carbon emissions.

Biden, however, is a vocal advocate for multilateral agreements and diplomacy, and he has signalled that climate change is an issue he takes seriously.

He named former secretary of state John Kerry as his special envoy for climate change, and gave him a role on the U.S. National Security Council.

Re-entering the agreement was one of his first moves as president.

dpa/NAN

N3trn needed to cover Nigerians annually, says NHIS executive secretary

 

Mohammed Sambo, executive secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), says the agency needs N3 trillion annually to cover the health insurance of all citizens.

Emmanuel Ononokpono, head, media unit of NHIS, quoted Sambo as saying this at a meeting with Buki Ponle, managing director of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Sambo said with sufficient funds in the health insurance pool, the scheme would expand its benefits package to include medical conditions such as cancer.

The establishment of a catastrophic fund is being planned to specifically address terminal ailments, the professor said.

While acknowledging the challenges of drug dispensing within the health insurance system, Sambo expressed optimism that the collaboration between NHIS and drug manufacturers would make medicines affordable.

According to him, there are plans to extend health insurance coverage to the elderly and retirees “who have reached advanced stage”.

Sambo said the process of including members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) into the scheme has been concluded and coverage will be commenced with the release of funds by the federal government.

On his part, Ponle said NAN’s reportage of issues is targeted at finding solutions to challenges confronting the country.

“We try as much as possible to report adequately and proffer solutions to issues,” the MD said.

“We identify and emphasise with humanity.”

- THECABLE

Buhari govt enabling kidnapping, making friends with abductors – Ezekwesili

 

Oby Ezekwesili, former minister of Education has accused the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government of enabling kidnapping in Nigeria.

Ezekwesili said this while condemning the abduction of 27 Kagara students from Niger State, adding that a strange incestuous relationship now exists between the government and abductors.

The ex-minister claimed the friendship has enabled the industry of abduction to flourish in Nigeria on basic market principles of demand and supply”

Taking a swipe at the government, Ezekwesili said she hoped the students remain safe until President Muhammadu Buhari ‘reaches out to the abductors’

The former minister on her Twitter page wrote: “Still no positive development on the Kagara students abduction, @NigeriaGov? Truly disastrous that Education is now under the daily threat of barbarism.

“May God keep them safe until President Buhari reaches out to their abductors as he did for #KankaraBoys in Katsina.

“There’s now an industry of abduction flourishing on basic market principles of demand and supply. It is enabled by a strange incestuous relationship between the government and the abductors.

“Folks in Federal and State Governments are throwing this friendship in faces of Citizens. SHAME.”

Meanwhile, Governor Bello in an earlier update said his government is in the last stage of negotiations with the bandits who abducted the students.

He promised that the victims would be released soon.

Also, the Kaduna based Islamic cleric, Sheik Ahmed Gumi, who recently met with the bandits claimed the kidnapped students would soon be released.

- DAILY POST

MEGA MAD MAN !!! Fulani herdsmen neglected since 1960 while farmers enjoy – Gov. Bello

 

Niger State Governor, Abubakar Bello, said since independence, farmers have enjoyed the benefits of democracy while herdsmen were neglected.

He lamented that herdsmen (whose 90% are Fulanis) also add to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product but no one cares about their education or wellbeing.

Bello added that it’s now time to cater for the herdsmen in order to have “everlasting peace.”

The governor stated this on Friday at the Government House in Minna, the state capital, while addressing journalists on progress made to secure the release of abducted students and members of staff of Government Science College, Kagara.

According to him, the government was exploring kinetic and non-kinetic methods to secure the release of the abductees.

Bello also said he would be meeting with stakeholders at the grassroots to proffer a solution to the insecurity in the state.

He said, “I have called for a meeting with all the first-class emirs on Tuesday and all the Fulani heads to discuss. Sometimes, we need to understand ourselves to find solutions. May be they also have problems, maybe. So, we need to talk to them to read their minds and to understand what their problems are, so that we can address it.

“The truth of the matter is that since independence, no one has paid attention to herdsmen who are mostly Fulanis because not all herdsmen are Fulanis but 90 percent are Fulanis. Nobody has paid attention to them, no one has paid attention to their education, all we do is we see them on market days, they come and we see them and we laugh. Nobody paid attention.

“So, they were moving from place to place with their cattle being attacked but now the time has come to stop all that practice, it is no longer feasible, there are no longer cattle routes anymore. As long as they move their cattle from different towns, different states, down South, there will be problem because there are no more cattle routes, the population has increased, we are about 200 million now, more people are farming.

“We have paid more attention to farmers, all the programmes, all the incentives to farmers, zero to herders. They (herders) also add to the GDP, they also will increase our economy, they also can create jobs if planned very well. So, the time has come to look at them to capture them very well in the system and that must be done for everlasting peace.”

- PM NEWS