AS part of efforts aimed at putting a halt to the lingering fuel crisis, Petroleum marketers have suggested Crude swap between them and the Federal Government.
With the crude swap, government is expected to allocate certain barrels of crude oil to the markers, which the latter will in-turn take to refineries abroad, process and return same quantity as finished product.
The marketers had stopped importation of petroleum products since March when controversy over subsidy debt started, leaving the business of fuel importation to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which now importS only 50 per cent of required products into the country.
Former President of Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami and erstwhile President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Olisa Agbakoba, are being considered to fill the position of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission to be vacated by Prof. Attahiru Jega on June 28, 2015. Though Jega is eligible for reappointment but the former President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities is said to have declined interest in serving another term.
About nine national commissioners, whose tenure expires this month, will also go with him. INEC has a total of 12 national commissioners. Sunday Telegraph gathered that some chieftains of the All Progressives Congress are rooting for Salami because they see his premature retirement by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan as vindictive. “Some APC leaders believe that if Jega is not willing to go for a second term, Salami should be considered. You know he was accused of all sorts of things by PDP because they believe he was working for us. But this is not true.
The cordial relations between President Muhammadu Buhari and All Progressives Congress National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, may have gone cold over the alleged overbearing attitude of the latter in the sharing of political offices.
Sunday Telegraph’s investigations revealed that Tinubu’s decision to use his powers as the party’s national leader to provide direction on the party’s postelection future did not go down well with some other top members of the fold. As such, they used the opportunity of the election of leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives to stop him in his tracks.
While Tinubu backed Senator Ahmad Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila as candidates for Senate President and Speaker, House of Rep[resentatives respectively, his opponents supported Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara for both positions.
The International Criminal Court, based in the Netherlands, asked South Africa to stop Omar al-Bashir from leaving the country. Sudan’s president was ordered by the Pretoria high court to remain in the country until Monday, when it will decide if he should be tried for the charges against him by The Hague’s International Criminal Court.
Omar al-Bashir, visiting Johannesburg for an African Union summit, has been wanted by the International Criminal Court since 2009 on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in the western Sudan region of Darfur.
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday attributed the deplorable power situation in the country to dubious awards of contracts by previous administrations. Various contracts for power projects were awarded by the administrations of Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan over the last 16 years.
Under Obasanjo, a probe of the power sector by the House of Representatives ended on a controversial note. Osinbajo, who made the declaration in Abeokuta, said large-scale corrupt practices in the contract awards for power generation, distribution and transmission were responsible for the collapse of the sector. He said these while delivering a lecture titled, ‘Nigerian economy and the future’ at the 10th anniversary of Crescent University, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
The Northern Elders’ Forum has urged Nigerians to be patient with President Muhammadu Buhari in fulfilling his campaign promises. The forum said the President met a damaged economy that would take time to heal.
Buhari, who succeeded Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, was sworn in on May 29.
In an interview with SUNDAY PUNCH, the Secretary of the NEF, Professor Ango Abdullahi, said while there were high expectations from the electorate, they should also note that Buhari came into power at a time the economy was bad.
He said, “There are so many challenges. Sometimes, I am sympathetic to how this country had been so run down almost to ground zero and Buhari is expected within the shortest time possible to lift it from its knees. It is not going to be easy at all.
An investigation has commenced into how the federal government has been allegedly short-changed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in swapping crude for refined products.
Nigeria is feared to be losing money through opaque contracts in which crude oil worth billions of dollars is given to traders in exchange for refined imports, mainly gasoline, international and domestic watchdogs have said.
The anti-corruption agency, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Directorate of Security Services (DSS) launched the investigation last month.
A security source with knowledge of the matter said the DSS wanted to find out how the value of the crude and products was computed.
“It appears that the value of the crude was more than the value of the refined imported,” the security source said.
By Senator Chris Anyanwu
In the past three days, I have been inundated with calls, emails and text messages from all over the world over some mystical issue called “age of consent” supposedly pegged at 11 years in a bill passed in Nigeria. What is amazing to me is that some of the people who have been furiously ped¬dling this story are supposedly learned people. But for some reasons best known to them, they have failed to ap¬ply the usual rigor to check out their facts before broadcasting.
I am not just amazed, I would say I am even amused that the furor is about a bill that I presented, something that has been in the works since the Sixth senate, has gone through the scrutiny of legal drafters, has passed through an intense public hearing with many judges, state attorneys general and law reform people participating. What is most intriguing is that with the ex¬ception of a few persons, most others simply joined the wave, ranting and cursing on the web over something that they have no clarity on. Rarely did the conversations I read flow in the direction of a genuine search for the veracity of the story. And when I read a former Minister join up with utter banalities like: “the Senate has passed a law which makes it legal to have sex with an 11 year old child”, I was ashamed for the hecklers, wor¬ried for the young men and women out there who may be looking to such persons for example.
Tuesday elections of Dr. Bukola Saraki as Senate President and Mr. Yakubu Dogara as House of Representatives Speaker tipped in their favour on account of the intervention of top businessmen, high-profile investors, and some ex-Ministers in the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, it was gathered yesterday.
The plots were hatched in Port Harcourt, Lagos, Abeokuta, Abuja and Ilishan, Ogun State by four serving governors and seven ex-governors in what a source described as a bid to “decimate APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.”
Two of the serving governors are from the South-West and one from the North-West, while two of the ex-governors are from the South-West, three from the North-West, one from the North-East and one from the South-South zone.
An influential Emir was also involved in the anti-Tinubu campaign, according to sources. The monarch had first sought Tinubu’s support for Saraki’s bid in a move he described as “politically strategic” for the future of Nigeria.
‘Rebels’ plot sack of party’s NEC
■ How UK envoy’s visit forced U-turn
■ The counter ‘coup’ that was aborted
■ Focus shifts to remaining 4 seats
Unless the various contending forc¬es arraigned against each other radically and urgently beat a quick retreat from their rigid positions, the All Progressives Congress (APC) may be in for a messy and prolonged crisis.
Fresh indications to this effect emerged, last Thursday, when rather than show intents of reconciliation with a view to mending the widening cracks, they resorted to digging deeper into their positions and literally dar¬ing each other.
And this is without recourse to the belated assurances of acceptance of and co-opera¬tion with the new leadership of the National Assembly by the top party leadership last Friday.
The u-turn was indeed timely and dra¬matic as a little delay would have spiralled the crises out of control, given the dramatis personae involved and the direction it was headed.
• Why APC Chairman changed course
Embarrassed by the needless threats and vitriolic vituperation from the leaders of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as a result of the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogara as Ssenate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, respectively, President Muhammadu Buhari has prevailed on leaders of the party to sheathe their swords.
In fact, it took a personal communication between Mr. President and Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, before the breaks could be applied.
Consequently, it was Chief Oyegun who told State House correspondents on Friday after a brief meeting with the President that the party has accepted Saraki and Dogara as leaders of the National Assembly – its 8th session.
Top leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) are reportedly appealing to President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint the first elected governor of Abia State, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu as Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF).
THISDAY gathered that the clamour for Onu’s appointment began after the presidential and National Assembly elections when the South-east failed to produce any senator on the APC platform for possible election as the Senate President.
It has also emerged that Buhari may appoint a former governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chris Ngige as Minister of Health.
Onu, who was one of the few Nigerians to bag a doctorate degree in chemical engineering without a Masters degree, was in 1991 elected governor of Abia State on the platform of the National Republican Convention (NRC).
Amid public outcry over President Muhammadu Buhari’s delay in announcing his choice of ministers, the Presidency has begged Nigerians to be patient.
Shortly before his May 29 inauguration, Buhari had reportedly rejected plans by governors of the All Progressives Congress the party leadership in the states to submit ministerial nominees to him.
The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media, Garba Shehu, in an interview withSahara TV on Saturday, argued against comparing Buhari’s government to such states as Kaduna and Rivers, which have appointed some commissioners.
According to Shehu, following the 2011 elections, many South-West governors took several months to form their governments.
The crisis set off by the recent election of the principal officers of the National Assembly may be far from over despite the All Progressives Congress’ recent assurance that it has put its house in order.
Aggrieved APC senators, on Saturday, demanded for the immediate resignation of the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.
The senators, who are loyal to Senator Ahmad Lawan, the party’s candidate for the Senate presidency, insisted that Ekweremadu’s resignation was one of the conditions that would make the faction to recognise Senator Bukola Saraki as President of the Senate.
The aggrieved lawmakers, under the auspices of the Senate Unity Forum, however, stated that they had nothing personal against Saraki and Ekweremadu.
APC senators had been divided over the leadership of the National Assembly since the controversial elections. The ruling party had chosen Lawan for the Senate presidency and Femi Gbajabiamila as its candidate for the House of Representatives’ speakership in the aftermath of a mock intra-party election conducted on June 6.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said the use of only military operations to tackle Boko Haram activities in Nigeria and other violent groups across the world cannot end insurgency.
A statement on Friday by the African Export-Import Bank, indicated that the former president said this during the bank’s 22nd Annual General Meeting held in Lusaka, Zambia.
Obasanjo, speaking about conflicts in Africa, also said the crises were caused by failure to address certain social problems in the society such as educational disparity.
Afrixembank’s spokesman, Obi Emekekwue quoted Obasanjo in the statement thus, “He proposed a carrot and stick solution to the conflicts on the continent through an approach involving military solutions and social development since a purely military approach would not work.
