News

Open Letter To Gov Wike (1)

Published

2 years ago

August 23, 2022

Editor

What Did Rivers PDP Elders Do?

It appears there is no more love lost between Your Excellency, Chief Barr. Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, CON, GSSRS, Executive Governor of Rivers and the erstwhile great Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) family in the state, the PDP elders in particular.

Though you have remained unusually taciturn since after the PDP presidential primary election which you fought gallantly but narrowly lost, it could not be hidden that you were not happy with the outcome of that election.

A pointer to that was your address to Rivers people on your arrival from Abuja after the ill-fated primary election.

You readily blamed the failure to clinch the coveted presidential ticket on betrayal by certain persons even from our dear south-south zone but you rarely mentioned names.

Your Excellency, every other Riversman including the elders of the party in the state was as pained and aggrieved on the outcome of the primary election.

We are however, taken aback by your recent outburst over the primary election, using every possible opportunity and available forum to berate those you allege were responsible for the turn-around of events in your quest to contest the presidential election on the platform of the PDP and later to become the vice presidential candidate.

More shocking is the extreme localization of the issue whereby Your Excellency seem to have singled out the Elders of the party in the state for underserved persecution.

Your Excellency have accused some of the Elders of the party in the state of ganging up against you simply because they did not scale through the primary to be the governorship candidate of the PDP in the state.

You further alleged that some of them have relocated to Abuja, gossiping you to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and plotting against you. You are yet to disclose what they are plotting against you for since you are serving out and not contesting any election.

In a feat of anger, Your Excellency recently made some sweeping changes in some of the party wards across the state, demoting some and elevating some of the Ward and Local Government Area Leaders, a move many have described as too extreme and authoritarian and seemingly so.

May be, you drew your conclusion from the visit to the PDP presidential candidate, Alh. Atiku Abubakar by some party Elders from the state. Prior to that visit, Alh. Atiku Abubakar and other PDP chieftains had visited the state to see and confer with Your Excellency severally.

The PDP Elders in the state are also stakeholders of the party in Nigeria. They are well known and respected as senior citizens of this country and have the freedom of movement and association as of fundamental right.

Most importantly, at no time had Your Excellency met with them or instructed them on who to consult or relate with which of course, could be unwise ‘to do so’.

Your Excellency, we must not lose sight of, or forget so soon the various roles played and still playing by these PDP Elders in the stability of the PDP as a ruling party in the state which has all of a sudden become a beehive for your erstwhile political detractors and critics.

Today, the PDP in the state is a party to join, some trooping in to partake in the largesse and stupendous spending being doled out to woo them while the real stakeholders who staked their lives are out there in the cold languishing in hunger and frustration.

Your Excellency, with due respect, this to us, is not how to appreciate and reward hard work and undiluted support such that you have received all these years from the persecuted PDP Elders.

The question that agitates the mind therefore, is what sin did the PDP Elders commit by visiting Alh. Atiku Abubakar whether to broker peace between their angry Governor and the PDP presidential candidate or to express their solidarity as Elders of the party from Rivers State.

How does this visit amount to, and indeed surpass all the blackmail, name calling, sabortage and defamation of character of Your Excellency by those who now dine and wine with you in the name of decampees with millions of Dollars to compensate for their insults. What an irony of fate?

Your Excellency, perhaps, it is instructive to refer you to one of the statements of Rev. Monsignor Pius Kii while delivering the sermon during the 74th Birthday Anniversary of Sir Dr Peter Odili on August 15, 2022.

According to him, “Growing up, children are for the most part dependent on parents in many ramifications. When a parent trains, nurtures and empowers a child in such a measure and manner to be able to give something of real worth to the parents subsequently, it confers on the child dignity and self-worth like no other, it provides the child with the dignity to answer love with love. It is a way of expressing thanks to parents who brought him/her into being and sheltered him or her from harm”.

By extrapolation therefore, it is expected that Your Excellency have a retrospect into the recent past and contemplate how the present place of the PDP in the Rivers State was made possible, and say without fear of castigation if the treatment being meted on the party Elders is right and justified.

Still drawing from that all illuminating homily, “Humility is the essence of royalty. Failure to remember this can be very dangerous as it were”.

Your Excellency, wisdom tells us that we are all called on, to be leaders and followers, the two concepts being of the same process and not opposites.

Leaders and followers, and in this case the Elders inclusive, must sit around the same table, engaged in the same task, asking same question: how, together, can we lift one another?

The current ostracization of the PDP Elders from their collective property (administration) and partaker in the proceeds for whatever reason is a negation of this natural justice and has the potential to destroy the hard earned party victory in the state if not now, definitely in no distant time.

The earlier therefore Your Excellency retrace your step and accord the respect and honour to whom honour is due (the Elders), the better and happier for all.

We must not allow the ‘defections of the enemies yesterday and friends today’ into the house built by persecuted Elders to delude us into self-destruction for the heart is deceptive.

The election that brought the party to power in the state was collectively won with immeasurable contributions from all, especially the party Elders who now appear to be on trial.

A good leader is not only a manager of material resources. He should also be able to manage humans with whom he works no matter their differences.

A word they say is enough for the wise.

Please Your Excellency, watch out for part 2 of this open letter.

Long live Rivers State

Long live PDP, Rivers State Chapter

Dr John B. Amadi, Spokesman, Concerned PDP Supporters, writes from Rivers state.

News

Minimum Wage: Why We May Not Accept N100,000 – Organised Labour

Published

2 hours ago

May 20, 2024

Editor

The organised labour has told the government to perish any idea of offering N100,000 as the new minimum wage.

The labour has also told the government to be serious with the negotiations on the issue of workers wages, insisting that it used the lowest minimum in arriving at the N615,000 as new minimum wage.

Recall that the organised labour comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, pulled out of the negotiation meeting last week Wednesday when the government offered N48,000 as the new minimum wage.

However, Chairman of the Tripartite Committee on the National Minimum wage, Alhaji Bukar Goni in a letter to the organized labour for a meeting tomorrow indicated interest that the government will shift ground and asked the organised labour to also shift ground.

Speaking to Vanguard in Abuja, the NLC Head of Information and Public Affairs, Benson Upah, said that the organised labour would honour the invitation tomorrow but he advised the government to be serious.

He said, “Our expectations are that the government should be serious this time around. We expect them to take more seriously the issue of wages of workers.”

On whether labour would accept N100,000 as being insinuated, he said, “Well, it will not be fair and these are the reasons. The first reason is that when we demanded for N615,000, we broke that down. In fact, we used the barest minimum.

“For instance we put accommodation for N40,000, we also use for feeding N500, tell me where you are going to get food for N500 with a family of six. As I said, we used barest estimate but beyond that, government hiked electricity tariff by two hundred and fifty percent after we made our demand and that has introduced new cost and expenses. So if government is serious, it should not be thinking about a hundred thousand naira.

“You know that when you create poor citizens, you create a poorer county.” On his part, a member of the NLC delegation on the Tripartite Committee, Prof Theophilus Ndubuaku, said it would not be kind of the government to offer N100,000.

He said, “I don’t think one hundred thousand naira is a kind of thing we want because it’s far below expectation, we will accept something that can at least keep somebody alive. I don’t think a hundred thousand naira will keep a worker alive in this country a man with a family of six because our computation is based on the size of family.

“So, if they come up with that kind of amount, I don’t think we will appreciate it. In the private sector even artisans are not taking one hundred thousand a month. Whatever we accept we will look what is the income, what are they collecting, what is available to government because if government is collecting one trillion naira, we cannot ask them to pay two trillion.

“We are responsible people but the same government should know that people are suffering they will have to agree with us that there is crisis, that something needs to be done to create wealth, that something needs to be done for Nigeria to be a producing country and not a consuming nation.

“Something needs to be done to reduce the cost of governance. We are supposed to be partners in governance, after all we are the labourers.”

Asked to give reason why labour may not accept one hundred thousand, he said, “If we see that that hundred thousand is affordable, if we see that they can afford more, we will reject it. They have to tell us why they cannot pay N615,000, the onus is on them to tell us why, then we will sit down and say okay you don’t have the money but we will also know why you don’t have the money because Nigeria is a country that is naturally endowed but something is wrong, how do you make sure you get the money so that when we come again in two years time, you won’t tell us the same story?

“What are you doing to create wealth, how are you going to partner with us to create wealth instead of being wasteful, how are you going to partner with us to reduce cost of governance. If a father comes home and says the only money he has is one thousand naira and you know that the father is not wasting the money, you will manage but if it is when the father comes and he is eating food bought from the fast food joint and it cost N10,000 and he gives one thousand to the entire family to go and look for food and cook for themselves, he may be beaten up, the family may refuse it.

“The letter they wrote to us they said that both parties should shift ground, that means they will shift ground and they are expecting us to shift ground but the question is, what ground are they shifting, are they going to shift ground by two naira or two thousand naira to make it N50,000 or are they going to shift ground by N62,000 to make it N100,000 or by N150,000 or N200,000 to make it N300,000 plus.

“The point here is, this thing we are doing is not rocket science, the government should sit down and calculate how much it will cost, what is a befitting wage for an average Nigeria? They should breakdown what they are giving us because even in salaries, you break everything down. So when you break it down, they will tell us whether they are going to put one thousand naira per month for transport and two thousand naira per month for food.

“That N48,000 they are offering, they should have broken it down so if there are certain things they don’t want to make provision for, for instance health, if they say if any worker is sick they person should go and die or they don’t want to make provision for food, let them just put standard things.

“The problem here is that, you asked someone to tighten his belt, you said there is no money but you removed subsidy. Since they removed subsidy, FAAC has been collecting almost three times of what they were collecting before subsidy. That money you are collecting, what are you doing with it?

“You now said you want to build coastal highway when the existing roads to the same location are not passable, you are budgeting trillions of naira, you want to build Lagos-Sokoto brand new Highway, you want to put billions for hajj subsidy, you bought 200 vehicles for Customs and this is somebody that is complaining that naira is having issues but you now want to spend hundreds billions to import Toyota cars for Customs, why can’t you buy made-in Nigeria vehicles?

“This whole thing doesn’t make any meaning, we don’t even understand it. They are behaving as if they have money but they don’t know what to do with it like General Yakubu Gowon said in the 70s. You bought 200 Toyota Jeeps for Customs, it means you really do have the money but you don’t know what to do with it. But one thing you don’t want to do with the money is to feed Nigerians, feed your workers, make your workers comfortable.

“And as you can see, they are not even giving anybody hope. There is no programme for agriculture, government is not declaring emergency on power, food security, transportation.

“So what we are expecting is that, if they tell us they cannot pay N625,000, they should tell us why they cannot pay, this is negotiation. If we have told them to pay N615,000, what we expect government to calculate how many workers that are expected to receive this minimum wage.

“We did our research, you now say each state has this workforce, this is what they are now getting as revenue forget the fact that some of them are not doing anything to increase their IGR. Whatever they are getting now from the money coming from the federal revenue account, the federal government should say, this is the number of workers that we have, this is how much that you are asking, at the end of the day, this is how much we are expected to spend as salary and this is how much we have.

“So, NLC please look at it, we don’t want to spend this percent on salary, we will then sit down and ask, if you don’t want to spend it on salary, you want to spend it by importing vehicles for Customs when you have locally manufactured vehicles that won’t cost capital flight.”

He, however said that if the government comes out with something”relevant “, the organised labour will shift ground as asked.

“We must discuss with them that the figure presented is realistic and based on facts and statistics as the organised labour has done,” he said.

He said, “For provision of food for one person, we put N500 but there is a survey carried out by the National Bureau for Statistics covering all parts of the country, NBS is the custodian of statistics and it came out with that in today Nigeria, the average you can spend for a meal is N900.

“But we went low, we took the minimum. Their average is N900 but we took the minimum of N500, that is you cannot go below the N500. So you can see how realistic we are. So we will insist that government breakdown every item. Food, hospital, accommodation, transportation etc.

“We don’t want anyone to come and say that the NLC and the TUC presented arbitrary figure.”
VANGUARD

News

BREAKING: CBN Withdraws Circular On Cyber Security Levy

Published

4 hours ago

May 19, 2024

Editor

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has withdrawn the circular directing banks and other financial institutions to implement the 0.5 per cent cyber security levy.

The withdrawal of the circular was announced via a statement signed by Haruna Mustafa, Director, Financial Policy and Regulation, Department and Chibuzo Efobi, Director, Payment System Management Department.

The circular stated: “The Central Bank of Nigeria circular dated May 6, 2024 (Ref. PSMD/DIR/PUB/LAB/017/004) on the above subject refers. ‘

“Further to this, please be advised that the above referenced circular is hereby withdrawn.”

News

JUST IN: Tinubu Appoints Spokesperson, Ngelale, As Special Envoy On Climate Action

Published

5 hours ago

May 19, 2024

Editor

President Bola Tinubu has appointed his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Ajuri Ngelale, as Nigeria’s Special Presidential Envoy on Climate Action.

This was as he established a 25-person committee to oversee the country’s green economic initiatives.

“Ngelale will serve in this role as part of a larger Presidential Committee, to be chaired by the President,” the office of the secretary to the government of the federation revealed in a statement signed Sunday by its Director of Information and Public Relations, Segun Imohiosen.

“Ngelale will retain his role as the Official Spokesperson of the President and Special Adviser to the President on Media & Publicity while serving on the committee,” it added.

The statement is titled, ‘President Tinubu establishes a committee to oversee green economic initiatives, appoints Chief Ajuri Ngelale as special envoy on climate action.’

Imohsien said the Presidential Committee on Climate Action and Green Economic Solutions will “coordinate and oversee all policies and programmes on climate action and green economic development.”

“This is to remove the constraints to coordination, foster a whole-of-government approach to climate-action programmes, provide an efficient governance architecture, and ensure that all relevant institutions in the sector are plugged into the President’s vision and are collectively implementing the Renewed Hope Agenda on climate action,” it further explained.

The new committee which has the President as its Chairman also includes the Minister of Environment, Mr. Balarabe Lawal as its Vice-Chairman, and Mr. Ajuri Ngelale as its Secretary/Special Presidential Envoy.

Members are the CEOs of, InfraCorp, Mr. Lazarus Angbazo; National Council on Climate Change, Mr. Salisu Dahiru; Infrastructure Council Regulatory Commission, Mr. Michael Ohiani, Nigeria Investment Promotion Council, Mrs. Aisha Rimi and National Social Investment Fund, Mr. Aminu Umar-Sadiq.

The committee also consists of the CEOs of the National Agency for the Great Green Wall, Mr Yusuf Maina-Bukar, Energy Commission of Nigeria, Mr Abdullahi Mustapha; Rural Electrification Agency, Abba Aliyu; CreditCorp, Uzoma Nwagba, the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, Khalil Halilu Member, Solid Minerals Development Fund, Fatima Shinkafi; CBN Deputy Governor (Deputy Governor, Corporate Services Directorate) Mr Bala Bello; UN SE4ALL, Lolade Abiola; Member and an Adviser to the NCCC Adviser, Teni Majekodunmi.

Others are representatives of the Federal Ministries of FCT, Finance, Industry, Trade & Investment, Water Resources, and Agriculture & Food Security.

The committee also consists of representatives from the Federal Inland Revenue Service and the Nigeria Customs Service.

The OSGF outlined eight objectives of the Presidential Committee. They are to:

“Identify, develop, and implement innovative non-oil & non-gas climate action initiatives.

“Coordinate all activities of relevant federal institutions towards the attainment of all agreed climate action and green economic objectives and non-oil/non-gas ambitions of the federal government.

“Collaborate with all relevant government, subnational governments, non-government, and civil society entities towards the attainment of the climate action objectives and ambitions of the federal government.

“Collaborate with national governments and multilateral institutions towards the attainment of the climate action objectives and carbon market ambitions of the federal government.

“Monitor, evaluate, and guide the progress of all climate action and renewable energy projects and activities of the federal government.

“Track and guide the implementation of initiatives and developments conducted by the Energy Transition Working Group.

“Supervise the work of the Presidential Steering Committee on Project Evergreen and

“Prepare a half-yearly green ambitions update, covering all associated climate action achievements of the federal government.”