News

Today’s Realities Different From APC Campaign Promises — Lukman

Published

3 months ago

February 11, 2024

A former National Vice Chairman, Northwest, of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC, Salihu Moh. Lukman has lamented the growing hardship in the country, saying it is unfortunate that today’s existential realities are different from the campaign promises of the party.

In a heart-wrenching statement issued Sunday in Abuja and titled ‘Heartbreaking Reflections’, Lukman urged President Bola Tinubu to sit up and reevaluate some of the policy decisions he took in the last 10 months but which have brought untold hardship on Nigerians.

Lukman noted that rather than giving life to its campaign promises, the APC-led administration has only succeeded in changing all its promises to the consternation of Nigerians.

He said it is curiously disappointing that although Nigeria is supposedly in a democratic setup, today’s reality is as nervous as it was in the late 1990s.

“Although, today, we have an elected government with President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President, it is difficult to predict the direction Nigeria is going.

“Almost every action of the administration of President Asiwaju Tinubu is reduced to political convenience, often with hardly any clear logic other than exercising the power to make decisions, which cannot be substantiated with references to reasons. As a result, conditions of life are daily crashing. Being a loyal member of the APC and supporter of President Asiwaju Tinubu, it is very difficult to reconcile today’s reality with all the campaign promises made.

“Since 2015, as a party, we raised the expectations of Nigerians. We promised to change Nigerian politics but since winning the 2015 elections, we have only succeeded in changing all our promises to the disappointment of Nigerians”, he stated.

According to him, many elected and appointed representatives in government have acted exactly, if not worse, than the Peoples Democratic Party PDP leaders the APC defeated in 2015.

Lukman added that many APC leaders who were in the frontline of the struggles against military rule and against the PDP, are today very comfortable and are behaving like emperors and tyrants.

“They impose their decisions on citizens and when citizens criticise them, they hurl insults and abuses in the same way old military regimes responded. The only difference is that cases of arrests and detention are no longer the case.

“The consequence is that notwithstanding the fact that we are in a democracy, we have produced the sad reality whereby the leadership of President Tinubu is becoming more and more insensitive to the plight of citizens. In less than ten months since the assumption of office, prices of practically everything have jerked up.

“For instance, 50Kg bag of Rice, which used to be about N28,000 in May 2023, is now (February 2024) around N70,000. 50Kg bag of Maize, which used to be N16,000 is now more than N60,000. 10Litre of Groundnut Oil, which used to be N10,200 is now more than N21,000. 10Litre of Palm Oil, which used to be N7,000 is now more than N12,000″, he stated.

Lukman noted that all these are happening because President Tinubu’s government took the bold decision to remove subsidy on petroleum products and float the Naira exchange rate.

As a result, he said a Litre of Petroleum Motor Spirit PMS has increased to N670 from N189 while a litre of Kerosine increased to N1,300 from N1,000.

“12Kg Cooking Gas increased to N12,500 from N3,800. Exchange rate of the Naira is now hovering around N1,500 to the US Dollar from about N700. Given all these, incomes of citizens have crashed to below 25% of its value before May 2023.

“The value is still going down. The question of providing new opportunities for income earning is at best academic debate. High level government officials continue to engage the issues from the vantage view of their comfort zones.

“The truth must be told: There is a big existential problem facing citizens. Unfortunately, all we here is appeal for patience. How long are citizens expected to survive under this kind of very harsh suffocating reality? What is really the plan government is working on? As someone who was in the forefront of the struggle for democracy, this certainly wasn’t what we fought for.

“Also, as a supporter of President Tinubu, we least expected that President Tinubu will be weakly responsive to the challenges facing Nigerians. Why did we negotiate the merger of the legacy parties that formed the All Progressives Congress? Did we really do that to produce a party that could produce leaders who will attend to the problems facing citizens? If so, where then are the leaders? Shouldn’t President Asiwaju Tinubu be one of such leaders?”, he queried.

Lukman said at this rate, APC under President Tinubu may have succeeded in turning Nigeria’s democracy into an insensitive party.

According to him, the APC should ideally be the model being the ruling party, based on which it is able to orient initiatives of governments it controls to respond to challenges facing citizens.

“Unfortunately, as it is either the APC is alienated from citizens, or it is unable to orient initiatives of governments it controls to respond to the needs of citizens. With none of the organs of the party functioning, meetings at any levels are hardly taking place, all that the party does now is organising phantom primaries in which so-called aspirants for offices are crowned as candidates of the party.

“Yesterday’s fighters for democracy who resisted military dictatorship are today’s Godfathers. Being today’s Godfathers, they dispense patronage at will and shift anointment every election cycle. Is that the variant of progressive politics we are producing?

“President Tinubu, APC leaders and Nigerian politicians can do better. How can anyone with the faintest of conscience live a normal life with a reality whereby the same citizens who elected them as leaders are impoverished by decisions we took as a ruling party? Is President Asiwaju Tinubu at all aware that majority of our citizens, including relatively high-income earners cannot afford medication when they are sick?

“I must admit, both as an activist, as a politician, and as a Nigerian, I am heartbroken. I am devastated by the fact that the performance of President Asiwaju Tinubu in the last 10 months betrays all the expectations we had. We never expected that President Tinubu will be unmindful of the consequences of his decisions.

“The belief of many of us, and indeed most Nigerians is that President Tinubu is a responsive politician who will not recklessly take any decision without weighing its consequences on the lives of citizens. Being human, our expectation is that, if decisions are taken with grave consequences such as withdrawal of subsidy and floating the exchange rate, being the responsive leader he is, it is our expectation he will quickly review and recalibrate such decision with the overall objective of protecting the welfare of citizens. That is what progressive politics is all about.

“If within a four-year tenure, after 10 months the scorecard is gory tales of existential crises for citizens, then the political value of such a regime is suspect. President Asiwaju Tinubu must wake up and urgently do the needful to demonstrate his true democratic and progressive credentials.

“APC leaders must also wake up from their current power drunkenness and push the administration of President Asiwaju Tinubu to become more responsive and stop behaving like a military administration. A civilian elected government, which tramples on the structures of its own party and blocks its organs from functioning is as good as a military government. The choice between democracy and a dictatorship is clear. Once structures of the party are blocked from functioning, the capacity of any so-called democracy to respond to challenges facing citizens will be weak.

“This is exactly our situation in Nigeria today. The question is whether the real President Tinubu who was adjudged to be a democrat and progressive, who was voted by Nigerians, will resurface at this difficult times? I pray and hope that the God of mercy will take charge and fix our leaders and nation, Nigeria.

“May God Almighty touch the heart of President Tinubu and all APC leaders, and indeed all Nigerian politicians, to understand that millions of Nigerians are confronted with life threatening realities today. Just like we asked for the votes of citizens during an election, citizens are asking leaders, especially President Tinubu, to be responsive to today’s reality”, Lukman declared.

News

Old Clip Of Wizkid’s Father’s Claim On Helping Alaba Get Electricity In 1972 Sparks Outrage

Published

2 hours ago

May 7, 2024

Editor

Muniru Balogun, Wizkid's Father

Muniru Balogun, the father of multiple award-winning musician Ayodeji, popularly known as Wizkid, claimed to have sorted the electricity problem of the Alaba area in Ajegunle, a commercial community in the Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government Area of Lagos State.

Wizkid’s father said he went to the defunct National Electric Power Authority in 1972 to reach an agreement that helped the area enjoy electricity till today.

The claim has since been greeted by netizens’ outrage after the clip resurfaced two years later.

In the video recorded by GoldMyne TV in 2022, Balogun was presented with the Ajeromi Ifelodun Heroes and Icons Award.

Wizkid’s father, speaking on his contribution to the community, said, “I came to Ajegunle in 1972. At that time, there was no light in Alaba. So, I went to NEPA and lured them to come and make a survey of the area to give them light.

“So when they presented it. I did the survey; I did the draft, and the sketch of the whole of Alaba. They presented it to their board at that time (1972), and it was approved within two weeks, after which light was given to the area.

“So that is my contribution. I am the Baba Adinni of Alaba Central Mosque and also the former Chairman of APC for 14 years. I thank God that I’m still alive and that my son, Wizkid, is still doing well. I thank God.”

He further advised the community’s youths to shun social vices, adding that if they don’t have an education, they should have something to do while urging them to develop their talents in football, music, and the rest.

However, the interview has been greeted with backlashes and tribal outrages from netizens who claimed that the Igbo in Alaba developed the community into the commercial city it is today and not Wizkid’s father as claimed.

A Tweep, Mayowa David, who identifies as @kkiiikk on X, said, “But Alaba is Igboland Nannuuu….”

Another user, Phemmy, tweeting with the handle @phemifem, said, “The colonial master paid for the light in advance.”

Carter of Remo, who tweets as @Biola_carter, opined, “It’s a lie…Aguiyi Ironsi paid for it.”

One Chiefnwosu_store on Instagram queried, “Which of the Alaba? Suru Alaba or Alaba International Market?.”

Solarklips on Instagram also wrote in Pidgin English, “He gave Alaba light ke? na him be governor or LG chairman…Ok. accepted. People must have contributed money for the transformer, but he didn’t mention them. No man can single-handedly give a village electricity not to talk of Alaba.”

This is coming on the heels of the reignited long-standing feud between Wizkid and David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido which was accompanied by fiery social media exchanges.

In the early hours of Monday, April 29, 2024, Wizkid made some controversial tweets, which became the major topic of discussion in the entertainment industry for the week.

Wizkid had posted the embarrassing video, which had surfaced on the Internet some weeks back, in response to a fan who had asked him to release a new song.

He stated that his fans must beg him for a new song the same way Davido was pleading in the video before he would consider their request.

However, the singer did not stop there. He also threw ‘shades’ at Peruzzi, an artiste signed to Davido’s record label. Perruzi is believed to have written many of Davido’s songs, a fact that the latter has confirmed on different occasions. In one of the controversial tweets, Wizkid wrote, “You and all your crew, plus your pant washer songwriter, go to sleep at night thinking you actually got anything on me in music. Wish you all well.”

Responding to Wizkid, Perruzi dared him to swear that he had not also sought for him. On his part, Davido responded, “You’re a sick man.” In a now-deleted tweet, Davido also called Wizkid a woman beater.

News

Anambra Teaching Hospital To Commence Mass Burial Of Abandoned Corpses

Published

2 hours ago

May 7, 2024

Editor

The mortuary at the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital, Amaku-Awka, Anambra State, has reportedly been filled up.

As a result, the institution said it would commence the evacuation, disposal and mass burial of corpses abandoned at its facility since 2014.

The Public Relations Officer of the hospital, Henrietta Agbai, disclosed this in a statement sighted by our correspondent on Monday, adding that the exercise would commence from July 2024.

The three-paragraph statement was issued on behalf of the Chief Medical Director of the institution, Dr Josephat Akabuike, and the Chairman of the Medical Advisory Committee of the hospital, Dr Emmanuel Mba.

Agbai said the decision followed the approval granted for the action by the state government.

She said, “His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, has approved the disposal of abandoned corpses at the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital, Coouth Amaku-Awka.

“To this end, the management wishes to inform the general public that COOUTH Amaku-Awka intends to conduct mass burials of the abandoned corpses in its mortuary from 2014 to December 2023.

“Therefore, those whose relatives are missing should visit the hospital’s mortuary for possible identification and collection of such corpses within one month of this publication.”

The COOUTH is located at the centre of Awka, it is usually the first port of call for health emergencies in and around the state, especially in cases of road accidents, gunshot injuries and critical situations, among other.

It was gathered that most of the victims of these health emergencies do not eventually make it, and the corpses are usually moved to the hospital’s mortuary.

According to The PUNCH, the development has resulted in the hospital’s mortuary being overloaded with corpses, most of whom are unidentified, as far back as 2014.

News

Gunmen Kill One, Abduct Seven Travellers On Sagamu-Ijebu-Ode Expressway

Published

7 hours ago

May 6, 2024

Editor

Gunmen numbering up to seven have reportedly killed one person and abducted seven other travellers along the Sagamu-Ijebu-Ode expressway.

The gunmen armed with A.K 47 rifles were said to have waylaid and attacked the travellers in between the Ilisan, Ceplast industry and Iperu junction axis of the expressway on Friday.

A viral audio from one of the victims of the tragic incident, who was apparently a driver heading to Lagos, detailed how the gunmen stopped their vehicles with sporadic shooting and later marched them into the bush.

He said, “This incident happened at past five in the evening, they were armed to the teeth with A.K 47 rifles shooting heavily. They even killed one person who was inside a Lexus car. So, they marched about seven of us inside the bush and when I saw that they were speaking Hausa, I started speaking Hausa to them begging them not to kill me, so they asked if I was a northerner but I said no, that I have once lived in Kebbi and Sokoto.

“They kept taking us further inside the bush, later they asked if I had any money, so I gave them the N103,000 and my phone. There was another driver from the east who said that the kidnappers had collected N120,000 from him just as we were abducted. They later set the two of us free while the other five people abducted were still with them”.

Speaking with our Correspondent on Monday, the Spokesperson of Ogun State police command, SP Omolola Odutola confirmed the incident.

Odutola said that the police could not confirm the number of people that were abducted but noted that the gun-wielding hoodlums killed one of the travellers yet to be identified.

She said the incident which happened on May 3, around 6:55 pm was incidented as a case of armed robbery, murder and kidnapping.

Odutola said: “We have information that about seven people whom we don’t know with A.K 47 suddenly blocked the Benin-Sagamu expressway.

“The DPO of Ilisan when he got to the scene of the incident saw two vehicles pierced with bullets; a Lexus Jeep 300 with registration number LND 640 DY, the driver’s name is Chilaka Lugard and another Lexus Jeep 350 with registration number LSR 996 JF belonging to Kingsley Chineme. Inside this Lexus 350 car was found a cross bag with N113,000, two iPhones; an iPhone Six and an iPhone Eleven Promax.

“There was also a corpse of an unidentified man who was shot in the head.

“The third vehicle was loaded with plantains and the driver who was among those abducted, regained freedom and was later allowed to go with the vehicle. The other Lexus vehicles have been taken to Ilishan Police Station.”

Odutola said the Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Alamutu was not happy with this security breach and had in an emergency meeting summoned on Monday, directed the tactical commanders and the mobile squadron to go after these undesirable elements.

She said ‘the CP had been to the scene of this incident, and a lot of work is ongoing to fish these people out and let them answer for their criminality, I can assure you that, these criminals will be apprehended just very soon.”

About three weeks ago, some rampaging eight gunmen had stormed Ajadeh Event Centre along the Iperu-Sagamu road and snuffed the life out of Professor Yinka Olomojobi, a lecturer with Babcock University, Ilisan Remo.

Olomojobi, a Professor of Human Rights and Gender Law was reportedly shot dead on the fateful day around 9 pm by these daredevil gunmen for allegedly resisting his abduction.

The lecturer and others were at this relaxation centre when these hoodlums began disturbing the serenity of the environment with their heavy shooting.

By the time the dust settled, Olomojobi had been killed while two others, one Dare and another unidentified person had been whisked away.

The police however said that one Awada Ishaya from Plateau State had been picked up as prime suspect of the sordid act.

Ishaya was said to have just been employed two weeks ago as a security guard when the event centre was opened.