Headline

Insecurity: Emulate Boris Johnson, Nigerians Tell Buhari

Published

3 years ago

July 8, 2022

Editor

Following the worsening security crisis in the country, some stakeholders have insisted that President Muhammadu Buhari should immediately resign as Nigerian leader.

Terrorists and bloodthirsty bandits have been on rampage across the country, causing irreparable havoc.

The insecurity ravaging the nation, on Tuesday, June 5 took a frightening dimension with separate attacks on different government establishments and officials, including those working with President Muhammadu Buhari.

President Buhari’s convoy was attacked by suspected bandits in Katsina State on Tuesday. According to reports, at least two officials were seriously injured in the attack.

Recall also that the country’s medium correctional custodial centre was attacked on Tuesday night when suspected members of the Boko Haram and Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP) invaded the facility and freed at least 800 inmates.

Same day, about two police officers were killed in Katsina State where the presidential convoy was attacked.

Another senior police officer, an Assistant Commissioner of Police was also murder in a separate attack.

The development triggered Nigerians, particularly social media users to call for immediate suspension of all preliminary campaigns and other activities regarding the forthcoming general elections.

They expressed pessimism that the election would not hold, citing the level of criminal activities going on across the nation.

But speaking with DAILY POST, the National Coordinator of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, Emmanuel Onwubiko said the election must hold if the president fails to resign.

According to him, “Buhari does not need to be told to resign when he is so incompetent. The right thing he should do is to resign because he has nothing to offer, and he has never had solutions to problems right from the beginning of his administration.

“Nobody should bring up the issue that there should not be elections because there is violence. There were killings and terrorist attacks when INEC conducted election that brought in Buhari.

“That will only give the president the opportunity to extend his tenure. Whether there is war or not, there must be election. Buhari must go.”

Similarly, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who spoke to our correspondent from Benue State on condition of anonymity, asked the president to accept the call for his resignation and quit like the United Kingdom Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.

He said, “African leaders will always want to die in power. Nigerians have been calling for the resignation of President Buhari, yet he remains in Aso Rock doing nothing. Is that one a leader?

“Look at what happened in the UK, Boris Johnson has resigned because he was asked to. What is wrong with Buhari? Why does he want to die in power when he has nothing to offer”?

Recall that Boris Johnson resigned his office on Thursday, ending an unprecedented political crisis over his future that has paralyzed Britain’s government.

Johnson had rebuffed calls by his Cabinet to step down in the wake of ethics scandals. He gave in after more than 40 ministers quit his government and told him to go.

On his part, President General of the Coalition of Southern and Middle Belt Youth Leaders Assembly, COSMBYLA, Goodluck Ibem, said the president must be shown the exit door.

He said, “There is no room for failure and any failure must be shown the exit door. The time is now.

“Nigerians should not be calling for the suspension of campaign activities, rather they should he calling for the immediate resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari over his inability as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces to provide security for Nigerians, which is the first responsibility of any government to her citizens.

“The call to suspend campaigns because of insecurity is purely a third term request for President Muhammadu Buhari.

“So those calling for the suspension of the campaigns want to extend the tenure of the President after 2023, but their evil plot is dead on arrival”.

Headline

Televangelist, Jimmy Swaggart, Is Dead

Published

10 hours ago

July 1, 2025

Editor

Jimmy Swaggart, the popular Pentecostal preacher and televangelist who garnered national headlines for his extramarital affairs, has died at the age of 90 following a cardiac arrest.

Swaggart’s death was announced in a post on his official Instagram handle on Tuesday.

The post reads, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”

“2 Timothy 4:7-8. Today, our hearts are heavy as we share that Brother Swaggart has finished his earthly race and entered into the presence of His Saviour, Jesus Christ. Today was the day he has sung about for decades. He met his beloved Saviour and entered the portals of glory. At the same time, we rejoice knowing that we will see him again one day.

“For over seven decades, Brother Swaggart poured out his life preaching the gospel, singing songs of the faith, and pointing millions to the saving power of Jesus Christ and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. His voice echoed through nations, his music softened hearts, and his message never changed: Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

“He was not just a preacher—he was a worshiper, a warrior, and a witness to the grace and mercy of God. He was a man whose faith was steadfast and always entered whatever door the Lord opened. And the Lord honoured that faith. Please continue to lift up Sister Frances, Donnie, Debbie, Gabriel, Jill, Jennifer, Clif, Matt, Joanna, Sam, Ryder, Abby, Lola, Harper, Navy, Harrison, Caroline and Mackenzie in your prayers.”

Swaggart was born on March 15, 1935, in Ferriday, Louisiana.

At the age of 8, he had a powerful religious experience that made him feel called to become a preacher.

At 17, he married 15-year-old Frances Anderson in 1952, and they had a son named Donnie.

In 1961, Swaggart was ordained as a minister in the Assemblies of God, the largest Pentecostal denomination in the U.S.

Swaggart is also known for his musical talent.

A cousin of rock ‘n’ roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis, Swaggart had a successful gospel music career, selling more than 17 million albums over the years.

His ministry expanded into media.

In 1969, he started a radio show called “The Campmeeting Hour.”

A year later, he launched The Evangelist, a religious magazine. In 1973, he entered television with a 30-minute program titled “The Jimmy Swaggart Evangelistic Association Presents Jimmy Swaggart.”

He also began airing live recordings of his church services in multiple languages.

In the 1980s, Swaggart led large evangelism crusades in the U.S. and internationally.

One of the biggest was held in October 1987 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, drawing an estimated 125,000 attendees.

Headline

Trump Says Will ‘Take A Look’ At Deporting Musk

Published

12 hours ago

July 1, 2025

Editor

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he could consider deporting Elon Musk, after the South African-born billionaire slammed his flagship spending bill.

Trump also said the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — which Musk headed before stepping down late May — may train its sights on the Tesla and SpaceX founder’s government subsidies.

“I don’t know. We’ll have to take a look,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked if he would consider deporting Musk.

“We might have to put DOGE on Elon. You know what DOGE is? DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon.”

Trump doubled down on the threat when he said he believed Musk was attacking his so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” because he was annoyed that it had dropped measures to support electric vehicles (EV).

“He’s losing his EV mandate. He’s very upset about things, but you know, he could lose a lot more than that, I can tell you right now. Elon can lose a lot more than that.”

Trump made similar comments on his Truth Social network late Monday, saying that “without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa.”

Musk, the world’s richest person, was Trump’s biggest donor in the 2024 election and initially maintained a near constant presence at the newly elected president’s side.

They had an acrimonious public falling out this month over the bill and the tycoon has reprised his criticisms in recent days, accusing Republicans of abandoning efforts to place the United States at the front of the EV and clean energy revolution.

Musk has also renewed his calls for the formation of a new political party called the “America Party” if the bill passed.

AFP

Headline

Over 14 Million People Could Fie From US Foreign Aid Cuts – Study

Published

12 hours ago

July 1, 2025

Editor

More than 14 million of the world’s most vulnerable people, a third of them small children, could die by 2030 because of the Trump administration’s dismantling of US foreign aid, research projected on Tuesday.

The study in the prestigious Lancet journal was published as world and business leaders gather for a United Nations conference in Spain this week hoping to bolster the reeling aid sector.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) had provided over 40 percent of global humanitarian funding until Donald Trump returned to the White House in January.

Two weeks later, Trump’s then-close advisor — and world’s richest man — Elon Musk boasted of having put the agency “through the woodchipper”.

The funding cuts “risk abruptly halting — and even reversing — two decades of progress in health among vulnerable populations”, warned study co-author Davide Rasella, a researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal).

“For many low- and middle-income countries, the resulting shock would be comparable in scale to a global pandemic or a major armed conflict,” he said in a statement.

Looking back over data from 133 nations, the international team of researchers estimated that USAID funding had prevented 91.8 million deaths in developing countries between 2001 and 2021.

That is more than the estimated number of deaths during World War II, history’s deadliest conflict.

•⁠ ⁠HIV, malaria to rise –

The researchers also used modelling to project how funding being slashed by 83 percent — the figure announced by the US government earlier this year — could affect death rates.

The cuts could lead to more than 14 million avoidable deaths by 2030, the projections found.

That number included over 4.5 million children under the age of five — or around 700,000 child deaths a year.

For comparison, around 10 million soldiers are estimated to have been killed during World War I.

Programmes supported by USAID were linked to a 15-percent decrease in deaths from all causes, the researchers determined.

For children under five, the drop in deaths was twice as steep, at 32 percent.

USAID funding was found to be particularly effective at staving off preventable deaths from disease.

There were 65 percent fewer deaths from HIV/AIDS in countries receiving a high level of support compared to those with little or no USAID funding, the study found.

Deaths from malaria and neglected tropical diseases were similarly cut in half.

Study co-author Francisco Saute of Mozambique’s Manhica Health Research Centre said he had seen on the ground how USAID helped fight diseases such as HIV, malaria and tuberculosis.

“Cutting this funding now not only puts lives at risk — it also undermines critical infrastructure that has taken decades to build,” he stressed.

A recently updated tracker run by disease modeller Brooke Nichols at Boston University estimates that nearly 108,000 adults and more than 224,000 children have already died as a result of the US aid cuts.

That works out to 88 deaths every hour, according to the tracker.

’Time to scale up’ –

After USAID was gutted, several other major donors, including France, Germany and the UK, followed suit in announcing plans to slash their foreign aid budgets.

These aid reductions, particularly in the European Union, could lead to “even more additional deaths in the coming years,” study co-author Caterina Monti of ISGlobal said.

But the grim projections are based on the current amount of pledged aid, so could rapidly come down if the situation changes, the researchers emphasised.

Dozens of world leaders are meeting in the Spanish city of Seville this week for the biggest aid conference in a decade.

The United States, however, will not attend.

“Now is the time to scale up, not scale back,” Rasella said.

Before its funding was slashed, USAID represented 0.3 percent of all US federal spending.

“US citizens contribute about 17 cents per day to USAID, around $64 per year,” said study co-author James Macinko of the University of California, Los Angeles.

“I think most people would support continued USAID funding if they knew just how effective such a small contribution can be to saving millions of lives.”

AFP