Politics

Buhari Snubs Calls To Visit North, Jets Out To Turkey With Wife, Seven Ministers

Published

4 years ago

December 17, 2021

President Muhammadu Buhari has snubbed calls to visit northern Nigeria amid the rising insecurity in the region.

Rather, the President on Thursday travelled with his wife, Aisha, and seven ministers to Istanbul to attend the third Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit.

Buhari had come under attack in recent times due to the rising insecurity in the region with youths campaigning with the #SecureNorth and #NorthisBleeding.

As of Thursday evening, over 32,000 people had signed a petition on Change.Org, calling on the President to declare a state of emergency in parts of Kaduna, Zamfara, Sokoto and Katsina due to the insecurity even as the President had refused to visit victims.

During protests on Wednesday, the demonstrators said the President should personally visit communities attacked bandits rather than sending delegates there.

Some northern groups faulted the President’s decision to visit Lagos for the book launch of All Progressives Congress chieftain, Bisi Akande, barely two days after a bus load of passengers were burnt alive by bandits in Sokoto State.

Defending the President on Monday, the Minister of Police Affairs, Maigari Dingyadi, said it was impossible for the President to pay condolence visits to victims, adding that sending a delegation was proper.

“These attacks are happening almost on a daily basis and it is not possible for the president to visit all the places for condolences. And if you send a delegation, it is as if you were there, is all the same,” he said.

However, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said in a statement on Thursday that the President had travelled to Turkey for a summit, themed, ‘Enhanced Partnership for Common Development and Prosperity,’ which will be hosted by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the Republic of Turkey.

According to the organisers, the summit will review the cooperation between African countries and Turkey since the last summit in 2014.

Shehu said, “The third Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit is coming on the heels of President Erdogan’s recent State Visit to Nigeria during which several agreements in the fields of energy, defence industry, mining and hydrocarbons were signed to expand existing bilateral ties.

“The Turkish leader had, during the visit to Nigeria, affirmed his commitment to immediately expand the volume of trade between the two countries to $5bn and the Nigerian delegation will seize the opportunity of the gathering in Istanbul to enhance cooperation with other partners for more trade and investment opportunities in the country.”

Shehu added that Buhari would be accompanied on the trip by his wife, Aisha Buhari; the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Defence, Bashir Magashi; FCT, Mohammed Bello; Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire; Agriculture, Mohammed Abubakar; Industry, Trade and Investment, Adeniyi Adebayo; the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno; and the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Amb. Ahmed Abubakar.

The President is expected back in Abuja on Sunday, December 19.

Istanbul will be the 9th city the President has visited in the past 13 weeks. Within this period, he has visited Dubai, Durban, Paris, Scotland, New York, Riyadh and Mecca.

President’s failure to visit victims shows he does not care about Nigerians – Coordinator, NAM

Meanwhile, the coordinator, Northern Alliance Movement, Yahuza Getso said the President’s decision to snub even his home state where a commissioner was killed on Wednesday and traveled out of the country showed that he does not care about Nigerians.

He said, “We find it very disheartening and disappointed that at a time when people are being killed, when a lawmaker was killed in the president’s state, this is apart from the killings and kidnappings in the Northern parts of the country, he ( president) could leave the country, this has brought to the fore his lack of concern. It is a bad attitude that we never expected from our president. The President is an absolute failure to Nigerians. “

Buhari will leave the country on fire, only God holding Nigeria – SOKAPU youth leader

The Youth President of the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, Isaac John, in an interview with The PUNCH said he was not surprised by the action of the President.

According to him, only God has been holding the country.

He said, “I am not surprised and I do not expect anyone to be. It is the same old story. He would leave even if the entire country is on fire. Let me say at this point that it is only God that is holding the country.”

Meanwhile, Human Rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has demanded the immediate release of protesters arrested in the Federal Capital Territory and other parts of the Northern region.

The PUNCH had reported that some northern youths who were protesting against the rising insecurity in the region were arrested and subsequently detained by the operatives of the FCT police command.

However, in a statement on Thursday signed by Falana, he accused the police of breaching the fundamental rights of the protesters by disrupting their demonstration and arresting some of them.

The statement was titled, “Release detained protesters against insecurity”.

It read, “On Thursday some young people participated in a peaceful protest against increasing insecurity in the northern part of Nigeria. In utter breach of the fundamental right of the protesters the Nigeria Police Force violently disrupted the rally and arrested some of the participants.

“In stopping the peaceful rally the police violated the fundamental right of the unarmed protesters and others who were earlier arrested in Kano, Kaduna and Sokoto by the police and the State Security Service.

“By abruptly stopping the protests, the security forces breached section 83 (4) of the Police Establishment Act which requires the police to provide adequate security for citizens who participate in peaceful meetings and rallies.”

Falana reminded the police authorities that on November 20, 2014 the leaders of the All Progressive Congress led by Buhari took part in a protest against insecurity under President Goodluck Jonathan without any harassment whatsoever.

(DAILY POST)

Politics

PANDEF Wades Into Rivers Crisis, Sets Up Seven-member Mediation Team

Published

2 hours ago

January 10, 2026

Editor

The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has intervened in the political crisis in Rivers State, calling on all actors to sheathe their swords and embrace peace in the interest of the development of the state and the region in general.

Expressing concern that the political disagreement involving the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Mr Nyesom Wike, Governor Siminalayi Fubara and the State House of Assembly might degenerate to total lawlessness, the Board and National Executive Committee of PANDEF set up a seven-member reconciliation team to resolve the issues.

The team, which is headed by a former Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Kanu Agabi, has six other members.

They are Senator Obende Domingo (Vice Chairman); Chief Essien Nduese; Dr Timiebi Koripamo-Agari; Chief Mike Ejiofor; Mrs Nella Rabana-Andem, SAN; and Prince Godwin Okotie, the Deputy National Secretary of PANDEF, who will serve as the secretary of the team.

Politics

Wike: Why Removing Fubara Will Be Difficult – Ex-Commissioner

Published

1 day ago

January 9, 2026

Editor

A former Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Austin Tam-George, has said that attempts to impeach Governor Siminalayi Fubara would be difficult to sustain, citing what he described as the governor’s performance record and the lack of concrete allegations against him.

Tam-George made the remarks on Thursday while speaking on Prime Time on Arise Television, arguing that the impeachment process being initiated against Fubara was to scuttle his chance for a second term.

According to him, Governor Fubara has continued to place the needs of the people at the centre of his administration, with visible interventions in rural development, housing, education and healthcare.

He said this, in his view, has made it difficult for opponents to justify moves to remove the governor from office.

Tam-George also called on the All Progressives Congress, APC, to intervene, arguing that the party should not allow what he described as the humiliation of a sitting governor.

He said: “Well, all I think he needs to do is to do exactly what he’s been doing from the beginning, which is to place the people at the center of gravity of his administration, prioritize the needs of the people, so that the people can see the direct impact of government action in their lives.

“And that’s exactly what he’s doing in terms of rural development, in terms of housing sector transformation, which I mentioned that he is doing the same in education sector and in health.

“So if he continues, if he persists in placing the people’s need at the center of focus of his administration, there is no way they are going to be able to justify this kind of shenanigans.

“Because, if you look very carefully at the so called articles of impeachment, you will see that there is no specificity in terms of any infraction by the governor or his deputy.

“What they are trying to do is to make sure they scuttle the administration so that the governor doesn’t then get to the point where he will be seeking a second term.

“Let me be clear, just two days ago, Nyesom Wike was at one of the local governments, and he made it clear in a moment of epiphany, he made it clear that, look, if Governor Fubara were to get a second term in office, it will amount to his own political burial.

“So all of these things that we are seeing the so called impeachment proceedings they’ve initiated, it’s actually an effort to try to scuttle the prospects of the governor coming for a second term, and I don’t see how they will succeed.

“If you look at the so called articles of impeachment, as I said, they lack specificity in terms of the kind of infraction that they allege that the governor has committed. He has done nothing wrong, and they will see how the process will play out.

“My sense, and in fact, if I were to advise the governor, my sense is that he should just maintain the people, retain the people at the center of gravity of his administration, meet their needs, run a transparent administration as he always done, and then the truth will come out, and he will be able to defend the administration.

“I think the the governing APC should also step in because they can’t possibly allow the governor of the office with probably one of the best performance records in the country to be humiliated by some of these members of the assembly.”

Politics

Wike A ‘Pestilence’ On Rivers, I Resigned Because Of It – Ex-Commissioner

Published

1 day ago

January 9, 2026

Editor

Austin Tam George, a former Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communication, has described the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, as a destabilising force in Rivers State, accusing him of attempting to exert godfatherism over the state’s political affairs.

He argued that the move to impeach the governor is a calculated attempt to reassert political control and reduce Fubara’s growing influence.

Tam George, who served under Wike’s administration, made the remarks on Thursday while speaking on Prime Time on Arise Television.

He said he resigned as commissioner due to what he described as Wike’s propensity for chaos and instability and the reduction of governance to a personality-driven system.

According to him, the current political tension in the state is the culmination of Wike’s long-standing approach to power, which he said is now manifesting in efforts to control the state for personal political influence.

He said: “Nyesom Wike has been a complete pestilence on Rivers state. I served in his administration as commissioner for information. As you know, I resigned precisely because of these, his propensity for chaos, for instability and reducing government to a personality cult, more or less. And I’m so disappointed that this propensity has now crystallized today to a stage where the state is now held by the juggler by person who thinks that he will be political godfather over the rest of Rivers state.

“But what I think is going to happen in this final phase of this struggle is that Rivers’ people ultimately are going to resist and defeat this tendency to want to privatize the state, to want to capture the state for his own personal aggrandizement.

“Governor Fubara has been an excellent administrator. I have to say he’s spending money building people’s capacity, lifting communities out of poverty. Money you would have expected that he would have diverted to political godfathers are now being spent in critical sectors such as education, where he’s completely transforming the sector, in health where almost all the tertiary health care systems are revived, 122 primary health care centers spread across the 23 local government areas.

“There is a total transformation happening on a sector by sector basis, and this has endeared the governor to the people of the state.

“Now there is a strong likelihood that he may be seeking a second term to expand his legacy and to consolidate his achievements for the benefit of all. And this will mean that there is going to be, you know, a reduction of Wike’s influence.

“So what you see as an impeachment move is an attempt to try to reassert what they consider to be their leverage against the governor.”