The Minister of Works, David Umahi has appealed to the people of the Southeast region of the country not to join in the calls for protest against the Tinubu-led administration.

The minister made this appeal on Wednesday, July 17, during the unveiling of President Bola Tinubu's legacy road projects to stakeholders and residents of the state.

Umahi emphasized that President Tinubu is taking significant measures to alleviate the country's hardships and has made difficult decisions for the nation's betterment. "The president is doing everything possible to ameliorate and end the hardship. Let us support him, he is doing everything to unite Nigeria, put food on our tables, and develop the health, education, and other sectors. Pray for him and support him," Umahi stated.

He highlighted the support from governors in the region, confirming that there would be no demonstrations against the President in Ebonyi and the southeast. Umahi pointed out that the southeast has significantly benefited from numerous ongoing road construction projects under President Tinubu's administration, addressing long-standing neglect from previous governments.

"The southeast today under President Tinubu has benefitted from numerous road construction projects ongoing to develop the southeast, which has suffered many years of neglect in previous administrations. So we need to support him," Umahi said.

The Minister also noted a marked improvement in the region's security since President Tinubu took office. "Security has been highly improved in the southeast under President Tinubu. The little security lapses being noticed now are self-inflicted and I commend the governors of the region for what they are doing in this regard," he added.

Umahi called on Nigerians to refrain from making divisive statements, stressing the need for a peaceful atmosphere to foster development. "We should stop fanning the embers of division. We are paying for the past years of neglect and mismanagement. We failed to plan properly in the past and we have to accept our past mistakes and find ways to start correcting them, and this is what the President is doing," he concluded.

The Labour Party, LP, has expressed displeasure over the removal of the lawmaker representing Borno South senatorial district, Ali Ndume as the Chief Whip of the Senate.

On Tuesday, July 17, the Senate President Godswill Akpabio read a letter from the leadership of ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) demanding the removal of Ndume as a principal officer in the 10th senate.

The party also asked Ndume, who has been very critical of President Bola Tinubu, to resign and join any opposition party of his choice.

Reacting to Ndume's removal, the National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Obiora Ifoh, said the decision clearly signified that speaking truth to power is now a crime in Nigeria. According to him, the humiliation of Ndume by the senate is portraying dictatorial inclination.

“The crime of Senator Ndume was his bold expression of his concerns regarding the escalating cost of living and food scarcity in Nigeria, and his revelation that President Bola Tinubu has chosen to play the ostrich even in the face of acute starvation being witnessed in Nigeria.

The dimension this administration is taken is grave. Few months ago, Senator Abdul Ningi exposed the rot in the government where the Senate leadership and the executive collaborators allegedly padded the budget. That got him suspended and intimidated out of his lawful representative role as a senator.

It is needless talking about the economic crisis on going in Nigeria even where a few cabal are massively enriching themselves. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently said that food inflation has risen to 40.66 percent.

Even with all these glaring and scaring challenges, the government is said to have paid about N150bn for a presidential jet, building roads that have no direct bearing with the economic crises in Nigeria,” Ifoh said.

He wondered what could be called democratic about the party in government making decision for an independent legislative arm on who takes up leadership role in the nation’s legislature.

“This is clear a tyranny of a cabal against the legislative autonomy. Nigeria is gradually descending into dictatorship and we are calling on the citizens to be on an alert and put up a defence against the starvation weapon being deployed by this administration.” he said

The main entrance of the Port Harcourt Refinery complex was occupied by aggrieved youths of Alesa and Alode communities in Eleme, shutting down activities at the refinery in demand for employment even as the refinery undergoes rehabilitation.

The youths in their hundreds on Tuesday and Wednesday barricaded the main gate of the refinery complex, with placards bearing different inscriptions, such as “PHRC where did you keep our slots”, and “PHRC obey Nigerian Content Act” among others.

The leader of the protest identified as Hon. Johnson Nwogu, said the community was shocked that an employment of 165 people was carried out by the management of the refinery but only 13 chances were given to the whole of Eleme and less than five to Alesa, the host community.

Engr. Eric Chujor, President of the Eleme Graduates Forum, said;

“It saddens me to imagine how we are marginalized by multinationals, IOCs, and indigenous companies doing business within the confines of Eleme land. Our employment quota and contract chances have been compromised for far too long as against the Nigeria Content Act.

“The behaviour of those managing these firms and our representatives in the over 300 companies doing business in Eleme has impoverished our people. Hence, we must rise to the task of fighting against the injustice meted out to us by these groups of people,” Chujor said.

He continued: “It is heart-wrenching to see that the unemployment rate is on the rise in Eleme, whereas we have people coming into our space to earn massive profits every day. Contract opportunities now belong to a few individuals from the community as against running an open-door policy to all qualified contractors.

“Moreover, Eleme has qualified graduates and professionals who can fill various positions, including managerial roles within these companies, but they tend to look down on our people because our representatives in these firms have failed to project and protect Eleme’s indigenous workers before the top echelon of these companies.

“To prevent these unwanted developments, I request the support of Eleme stakeholders and meaningful people of the soil to rise and put a stop to these menaces for the future growth and development of Eleme land.

“For how long should we remain in silence, fold our hands, and watch all these levels of injustice unleashed on our people? They sack our youths but retain strangers, employ the strangers as direct staff, but our people as support staff, etc.

Take, for instance, Tecnimont has less than six Eleme graduates as their direct staff as against the hundreds of staff engaged. This is a violation of the Nigeria Local Content Act.”

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Police in Jigawa State have arrested 23-year-old Islamic school teacher, Yusuf Yunusa for allegedly sodomizing twelve of his students in Gwaram Local Government.

State Commissioner of Police A T. Abdullahi disclosed this while parading the suspects at the Command’s headquarters, Dutse, the state capital.

According to him “on 11/07/2024 at about 2100hrs, information was received at Gwaram Divisional Police Headquarters that, on the same date at about 1400hrs, one Yusuf Yunusa, 23 years of Gwaram town, a teacher of an Almajiri Islamic school, formed the habit of taking some of his pupils out to different locations and forcing them to massage his penis and suck it, in the process compels them to swallow his semen”

“On receipt of this very unfortunate and ugly report, detectives attached to Gwaram Division swiftly swung into action and arrested the suspect. He was brought to the Division for preliminary investigation”

He said a medical report confirmed the commission of the crime on 10 out of the 12 victims.

CP. Abdullahi said the suspect was transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, Dutse for a discreet investigation.

The Nigerian Senate on Wednesday passed for second reading, an amendment to the 2024 Appropriation Act to the tune of N6.2 trillion for capital and recurrent expenditure for the 2024 fiscal year.

The amended bill was presented to the Senate by Senator Michael Bamidele Opeyemi, indicating that the sum of N3.2 trillion is for capital expenditure, while N3 trillion goes for recurrent expenditure, to be spent before the end of 2024.

In his contribution, Senator Adamu Aliero representing Kebbi South, said the amendment, which would create opportunity for funding of critical projects that were not captured in the principal Act, was in tandem with the Renewed Hope Agenda. 

He reminded the Senate that the amendment will take care of the minimum wage that is being discussed with labour, adding that it was important that senators expeditiously pass it into law to avoid strike.

Speaking on the bill, Senator Seriake Dickson differed, saying that the Senate should not pass the bill in a hurry to avoid pitfalls.

He recalled the backlash from the public over a bill he said was previously passed in a hurry, noting that legislators should avoid public ridicule in the handling of legislative activities.

Dickson also disagreed with suggestions that the amendment to the Appropriation Act and the amendment to the Finance Act, 2023, be lumped together, stating: “I don’t believe we lumped the two bills together in a way and manner we are doing and if I have my way Mr President, I like to suggest that we step the Finance bill down.

“Let it not be that without the experts and critical stakeholders participating in public hearing. I think that we should be very cautious when we are discussing taxation and even these banks we intend to generate N500 billion are all running around to meet recapitalisation. These are two critical bills.”

Senator Sani Musa representing Niger North on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress maintained that banks earn enormous profit which can be inferred from their end of the year reports.

He said the profit was made possible due to robust policies of the government, hence, it should not be difficult for banks to be taxed.

He said: “Money bills are very important bills. The point is that if you look at the end of year report, you discover that commercial banks are making so much money despite the hardship pervading the country.

“I think banks should be well taxed because they make this profit out of the pronouncement made by this government. The reason for removing oil subsidy, the reason for abridging the gap is for the good of this country.”

After contribution by other senators in favour of amendment to the Act, Deputy Senate President, Jibrin Barau, who presided over the plenary called for voice votes and it was passed for second reading.

Following a mild amendment to the Student Loan Scheme, the Federal Government has effectively commenced the programme.

As of the time of filing this brief report, the President, Bola Tinubu is currently inaugurating a presidential committee to drive the Scheme at the State House, Abuja.

To kick start the programme, the President had recently approved ₦35 billion to be disbursed through specific criteria by the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, NELFund, targeting 70,000 initial applicants.

Jim Ovia who was appointed by Tinubu to Chair the Governing Board of NELFund had approved the disbursement of loans to successful applicants during its inaugural meeting in Abuja last month.

At the inauguration currently taking place in the Villa, Tinubu is expected to give the implementation team terms of reference to ensure the scheme does not derail from its mandate.

Details later…