Month: October 2023

(FLOWERBUDNEWS) Gov. Godwin Obaseki of Edo, on Monday said the state government had concluded plans to open up about 100, 000 hectares of new land for oil palm investors in the state.

Obaseki made this known during the 2019 Alaghodaro Youth Summit held in Benin to mark his third year in office.

He said: “From next month, we will make available 100,000 hectares of new land for oil palm production to investors.

“Indonesia earns more from oil palm production than crude oil. We are going to make Edo the palm oil hub of Nigeria.

“If we are to be able to cultivate 100,000 hectares of oil palm, we will need a minimum of two or three people to cultivate one hectare of oil palm.

“We will have created about 300,000 jobs from oil palm production alone,” Obaseki said.

The governor said that his administration was mapping out the state’s economy and looking at the future through its 30-year development plan to know what to spend money on.

“Our Ossiomo independent power supply would soon be available in the state.

“I cannot guarantee that you will have it in your homes, but I can assure you that you will have it to power the street lights, production centres, offices and business centres in the state,” he said.

Obaseki disclosed that he had created 157,000 jobs in the last three years.

According to him, 45,000 jobs were created through job tracking for organisations, 23,000 through Edo Innovation Programme, 1,300 through food and agriculture, and 16,000 through Edo Production Centre.

The governor added that 12,000 other jobs were created through the National Social Investment Programme, 10,000 through the ministry of wealth creation, and 32,000 from indirect jobs.

(FLOWERBUDNEWS) The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Monday reserved judgment in three separate appeals challenging the victory of Emeka Ihedioha in the March 9 governorship election in Imo State.

The five member panel presided over by Justice Oyebisi Omoleye, announced that judgment in the three appeals would be delivered on a date to be communicated to parties, after parties in the various appeals adopted their written addresses as brief of argument in the appeals.

The appeals were filed against the judgment of the Imo Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which upheld the election of Ihedioha.

It includes that of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and his governorship candidate, Senator Ifeanyi Ararume; Action Alliance (AA) and his governorship candidate, Uche Nwosu and that of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Sen. Hope Uzodinma.

The appellants are asking the appellate court to void the election of Ihedioha on grounds that he did not obtain the constitutional one quarter of the votes in at least two-thirds of the 27 local government areas of the state, in line with Section 179 of the Constitution.

In their various submissions by their counsel, the appellants are asking the court to set aside the decision of the tribunal and declare them winner of the March 9 governorship election.

Also in the alternative order the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a fresh election into the office of Governor of Imo State.

The three-member panel of the tribunal had in a unanimous decison delivered on Sept. 21, held that Ihedioha was lawfully declared winner of the governorship election by INEC.

The panel chaired by Justice Malami Dongondaji, had in the judgment dismissed Ararume, Nwosu and Uzodinma’s petitions for lacking in merit on the grounds that they failed to prove allegations made in their petitions.

They claimed that Ihedioha did not obtain the constitutional one quarter of the votes in at least two-thirds of the 27 local government areas of the state, in line with the provisions of the law.

The petitioners also alleged substantially of non compliance with the Electoral Act and Guidelines, including other irregularities.

The tribunal in its judgment held that the case of the petitioners was unmeritorious because they failed to call relevant witnesses and that evidence of witnesses called were based on hearsay.

The tribunal in addition rejected documents tendered by the petitioners in support of their claims on the grounds that those who led evidence in the documents were not the makers of the documents.

In his appeal, Ararume urged the appellate court to upturn the decision of the tribunal on the grounds that the lower court erred in law when it arrived at the decision that his case and that of his party lacked merit and accordingly dismissed it.

The appeal which was predicated on 22 grounds was argued by his lead lawyer, Mr Awa Kalu, SAN, while that of Nwosu and AA, was argued by Mr Niyi Akintola SAN, and that of Uzodinma and APC, was argued by Mr Damian Dodo ,SAN.

They all urged the panel to allow the appeal and grant all the reliefs sought by the appellants.

However, lead counsel to Emeka Ihedioha and Peoples Democratic Party, Dr Onyechi Ikpeazu , SAN and Mr K.C.O. Njemanze ,SAN respectively urged the court to dismiss the appeals for being incompetent and lacking in merit.

The respondents submitted that the appeal of the AA and Nwosu in particular constitute a waste of the precious time.

They argued that the Supreme Court in a judgment delivered on October 22, had already struck out the name of Uche Nwosu as candidate of the AA in the March 9 governorship election in Imo State.

The respondents also claimed that the appeal of Nwosu lacked merit going by a recent judgment of the Court of Appeal which nullified the candidacy of Nwosu in the governorship election.

Justice Omoyele after taken submissions of counsel in the matter announced that judgment will be delivered in a date that will be communicated to parties.

(FLOWERBUD NEWS) Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) has verified 11,363 Parastatal Pensioners
under the Defined Benefit Scheme in the North Central region of the country. The exercise
began on Monday, October 21, 2019 and was successfully concluded on Saturday, November 2,

1. There were four (4) Centres located at Ultimate Multipurpose Hall, New Yidi Road, Ilorin,
   Posh Garden Marquee, Plot 12 Eastern Bye Pass (Beside Hausa Block Industry), Minna, Kafas
   Multipurpose Hall, No 193, Okene/Kabba Lokongoma Phase II, Lokoja and Usiju World Limited,
   Plot 731, Apollo Crescent GRA, Jos.
   The exercise witnessed a large turnout of Pensioners including a first-Class Emir of Yashikiri,
   Barunten LGA, Kwara State among others. The exercise produced a total of 11,363 (Eleven
   thousand, Three Hundred and Thirty-Five) verified Parastatal Pensioners during the 2-week
   exercise. The breakdown of the numbers verified shows Ilorin Centre had the highest number
   of 3,453 followed by Lokoja Centre with 3,269 pensioners. Jos Centre had 2,895 and Minna
   Centre had 1,746.
   In line with PTAD’s tradition, the pensioners were treated with respect and empathy. The
   exercise was conducted in a conducive environment where Pensioners were provided with
   lunch and medical facility to take care of any emergencies.

The Senate Committee Chairman on Establishment and Public Service, Sen. Ibrahim Shekarau
was at Lokoja centre to monitor the exercise. He said he was satisfied with the verification
processes and promised the support of the NASS to the Directorate.
The Executive Secretary, Dr. Chioma N. Ejikeme who was on ground at various verification
Centres while the exercise lasted, appreciated members of the National Assembly for their love
for the senior citizens and support for PTAD towards improving the welfare of pensioners. She
also thanked the staff for their commitment and the pensioners for their cooperation. She
assured that the upcoming verification exercise in Abuja will include all the feedback received
during the North Central verification exercise.
The next phase of the verification exercise is scheduled to hold in Abuja from Monday,
November 18, 2019. Pensioners who missed the exercise in their zone should take the
opportunity of Abuja verification exercise to be verified. Pensioners do not need to be anxious
about being verified as the Directorate has the capacity to verify all pensioners who present
themselves for the verification within the period slated for the exercise.
Abuja Verification Exercise is scheduled to hold between November 18 – 23, 2019 at the
following Centres: H & C Event Centre, Behind Zoological Garden, Garki Area 1, Holy Trinity
Event Centre, 36 Aguyi irosi Street, Maitama, and NAOWA Event Centre, Mambilla Barracks,
Asokoro, Abuja.
The exercise is strictly for Parastatal Pensioners and does not include Customs, Immigration,
Prisons, Civil Service, Police pensioner and others that had already been verified by PTAD.

An entrepreneur, Mr Muideen Ibrahim, says locally-produced pencils will save the country over $2.4 billion (N734.4 billion) if encouraged and supported by the Federal Government with enabling policies.

Ibrahim, the Chief Executive Officer, BAMIB Resources and Investment Company Ltd., made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Monday.

Ibrahim said it was important for government to discourage importation of goods and services that could be produced in the country.

The manufacturer called on government to support indigenous pencil companies to prevent importation of the product.

According to him, if we are supported and encouraged, it will save government about $2.4 billion on importation of pencils annually.

“There are a lot of multiplier effects we shall give the country.

“Some of which are backward integration of our major raw materials and basic components, massive employment opportunities and contribution to the Gross Domestic Product.

“Also strategic investments in other regions and Foreign Direct Investments, amongst others, ‘’ he said.

Ibrahim said there was need for the government to increase the tariffs on imported pencils or place a technical ban on its importation to encourage indigenous pencil manufacturers.

He said this had worked in the rice sector and other allied products.

He said as a result of this, a lot of people were into rice production at the moment and the country was getting better for rice production.

Ibrahim urged the government to do something urgently for the local pencil manufacturers as they were suffering.

He implored the government to enforce the Executive Order 3 and Executive Order 5 respectively to the letter for effective patronage of local products.

He said: “Unfortunately, government is still paying lip service to this very good and apt Executive Orders. There must be a committee that will drive these orders and make them work.

“Not only that, the government must `walk the talk’ on Ease of Doing Business. This is one of the ways to help local manufacturers.

“Aside from that, there must be aggressive promotions on patriotism, among others.

“I wonder what is happening to the National Orientation Agency. That agency used to be very vibrant in those days.

“Call the manufacturers to a round table discussion and the government must as a matter of fact implement their decisions. The bane of our challenge in this country is implementation of policies.’’

The entrepreneur said BAMIB’s production capacity currently stood in excess of 450 million pencils per annum.

He said there was room for expansion, saying that it was a function of demand and supply.

He said the company had not broken even and could not even meet its obligations as and when due because of many challenges that were militating against it.

Ibrahim said the challenges were surmountable if government intervened to ensure sustainability.

“The challenges confronting us are so numerous, some of which are unhealthy rivalry and stiff competition by low quality pencils from some foreign countries.

“They use price mechanism to push us out of the market and we cannot sell below our cost price. We are operating in a harsh environment and thereby making our production cost high.

“Multiple taxation is another big challenge and ports congestion. There are so many agencies at the various ports. Technology can be deployed to the ports for efficiency and effectiveness,’’ the entrepreneur said.

According to him, government should increase the tariffs on imported pencils so that local manufacturers can survive.

“Government should implore the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to give pencil manufacturers at least N500 billion Special lntervention Fund at low digit interest rate.

“Government should give us import waivers on the importation of basic components, raw materials and machines, ‘’ he said.

Ibrahim also appealed to government to come up with favourable policies for pencil manufacturers as it was done for agriculture, cement and automobile sectors.

He urged government to also grant pencil manufacturers incentives that could make them survive.

He commended the Bank of Industry (BOI) for always supporting manufacturers, saying that more still needed to be done.

The entrepreneur urged other financial institutions to assist local manufacturers.

Ibrahim urged government to create infrastructure facilities such as good roads and power, saying that many manufacturers used generating sets due to the erratic power supply.

According to him, this makes locally-produced goods more expensive than the imported ones.

NAN

The revenue was generated from import duty, levy, excise duty and other fees.

Recently I heard a group of people discussing vehemently about the “uncomplimentary “role of Mamman Daura in the Buhari administration. They attributed everything bad to Malam Mamman Daura, my mentor, boss, friend, former editor and Managing Director at the New Nigerian Newspapers in Kaduna. I moved close to them and tried to explain to them about the Maman Daura I know.
I knew Malam Mamman Daura when he joined the New Nigerian as the editor of the paper- sometime in 1969. Before then, the editor of the paper was a powerful writer and historian, Malam Adamu Ciroma, while the Managing Director was a British journalist, Mr Charles Sharp.

I had been at the New Nigerian for a number of years before Malam Mamman Daura came in, at which time I was the Personal Assistant to Malam Adamu Ciroma, who had just taken over from Mr Charles Sharp as the Managing Director.

I was moved from Malam Adamu Ciroma’s office back to the editorial department to work with Malam Mamman Daura, this time as a senior reporter.
First, let me commend the decision of Malam Mamman Daura to leave the office of the Premier of Northern Nigeria, where he was an administrative officer to join the New Nigerian . Journalism at that time was not considered anything worth throwing away such a job to take up.
Malam Mamman Daura, (a Muslim) who attended the Trinity College (a Catholic University in Dublin, Ireland) had returned to Nigeria with two degrees; one in Economics and another in Public Administration. He could have gotten any job for the asking but rather decided to try his hands on newspaper reporting.
I recall that there were few university graduates at the newsroom of the New Nigerian, some of whom had come in only to see what it was like to be a journalist but left immediately after looking into the newsroom. Those of us who stayed on in the New Nigerian were indeed not university graduates at that time. I recall Dan Agbese, Clement Ende, Yakubu Abdul-Aziz, myself, just to mention a few.
Among the more experienced ones was Mr. Clement Isaiah, father of Sam Ndah Isaiah (founder and Chairman of Leadership Newspaper). It is noteworthy that although, young Isaiah initially trained as a pharmacist, but because the blood of journalism ran in the family he had to meander back to establish one of the most thriving newspapers in Nigeria today.
There was Malam Sani, father of Senator Shehu Sani, who was definitely an expert in composition. I must also mention Mr Rasaq Aremu who was the editor-in –chief and later succeeded by Mr Clement Isaiah and of course there was sub-editor guru, Mr Yakubu Ali.
Malam Mamman Daura, learnt the ropes of journalism very fast and before we could know, he took over the writing of daily editorial, the famous Candido column and very powerful feature articles. He was regarded at that time as one of the sharpest minds north of the River Niger and could very well be compared with others like Dr Jubril Aminu, Dr Mahmud Tukur, Dr Ibrahim Tahil, Professor Iya Abubakar and Dr Bala Usman, to mention a few.
He was a key Nigerian patriot and contributed in no small way to prosecuting the Nigerian civil war behind his pen, in the same manner that other northern patriots like Adamu Ciroma, Baba-Gana Kingibe, Alhaji Abba Zoru, Patrick Iyoher and others did.
I was closely attached to Malam Mamman Daura; ethnicity and religion were not part of his life. He treated people based on their performance and character. Mamman Daura nominated me for training programmes among many Hausa, Fulani and Muslim reporters in the New Nigerian. When the federal government bought over the shares of
Daily Times of Nigeria, Malam Mamman Daura nominated me, a Christian minority, to serve as Director of the Daily Times under the Chairmanship of late Alhaji Magaji Dambatta, another detribalized northern Muslim journalist from Kano state.
The job at Daily Times was one of my most challenging moments. This was one of my most challenging jobs. In the cause of balancing the Daily Times , we had to relieve various good and hardworking journalists, like Olusegun Osoba, who later became the Governor of Ogun State, late Dale Giwa, Chief Tony Momoh and Chief Olu Onagoruwa, of their jobs.
We also had to bring on board very unknown journalists like Ray Ekpu from the Chronicle Newspaper, Cross River state, who later became one of the most famous journalists in Nigeria, Felix Audu, from Benue State and quite a number of other journalists, into the stable of the Daily Times .
I recall that I was to travel to Makurdi on official duty during the civil war and Malam Daura insisted that because of the dangers of the civil war, I had to stay in the house of his nephew, then Col. Muhammadu Buhari who was the Commander of the Brigade in Makurdi. Col. Buhari, perhaps knowing the activities of a young reporter like me and considering the strict discipline that prevailed in his house, decided to hand me over to his adjutant, Major Dauda Suleiman, who took me to the officer’s mess but kept a keen eye on me, so no harm would come my way.
In order to complete his assignment of keeping me safe, Col. Buhari personally decided to drive me to Kaduna when my assignment was over. I must say that Buhari loved driving and would not allow his driver to drive from Makurdi to Kaduna. His driver was by his side while I sat behind with his younger brother Sani, then a student at the Government College Kaduna.
As fate would have it, we had a ghastly motor accident somewhere between Keffi and Kachia. But what keeps lingering in my memory was that, when Buhari came out of the car, he called my name, ‘Simon, Simon, hope you are alright’ and he did not even mention his brother’s name Sani. This was all in a bid to accomplish the wish of his nephew, Malam Daura, to ensure that no harm comes to me.
In the cause of my working as a reporter under Mamman Daura, I got into troubles; one was a result of a story I wrote on Zaria Tarpaulin Industry which insinuated that government officials had received bribe of Mercedes Benz cars from the proprietor, an Indian business man.
The then Governor in Kaduna, Col. Abba Kyari approached Mamman Daura that he should produce me for detention. Instead of producing me, Mamman Daura arranged for me to go to Port Harcourt to attend a meeting of Nigerian Union of Journalists and stay there until the trouble was over.
Malam Adamu Ciroma and Malam Mamman Daura taught us honesty and probity while we were with the New Nigerian. Rumour has it that Malam Daura was forced to move from the Premier’s office because he would not wear Agbada or Babariga to work throughout his stay in the New Nigerian as was customary with old northern senior officers. He wore suit and we often referred to him as “Mamman Bature”.
That Mamman Daura chose to pursue entrepreneurship in carpentry and thereby establishing a furniture factory KFCC, in Kaduna, was a great surprise to us. At that time people of Mamman Daura’s standing only needed to move to Abuja or Lagos and could make billions of naira as agents connecting people with government. That was the nature of hard work, Mamman Daura imbibed in us.
He later took over from the late Sultan Dasuki as the Chairman of African International Bank AIB, a completely unknown banking establishment and nurtured to become very profitable, employing hundreds of people. Rumour has it that when working capital of banks was moved to twenty five billion, Mamman Daura could not raise that capital because of his honesty; when banks with lesser pedigree crookedly raised that capital in no time.
Today, Mamman Daura is the same as he was yesterday. His residence in Malali, Kaduna State, is a simple bungalow and even though he produces furniture, the seats in the living room are ordinary and people waiting for him outside sit on the bench. Though his nephew is the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he lives in a bungalow outside the Villa with little security. Just like his Kaduna residence, visitors sit on the bench outside the house, while the inside has ordinary furniture like the one in Kaduna.
Malam Mamman Daura is a sound economist and he ran the New Nigerian with sound prudence that made profit for the newspaper during his time. While in the New Nigerian, he did not have a car of his own except the official 404. His official residence at then Dawaki road (now Isa Kaita road) was the same bungalow like that of any other senior staff even when he became the Managing Director of New Nigerian.
I have no doubt that Malam Mamman Daura has brought sound economic advice to his nephew’s government that has added value to the quality of government. This is the Malam Mamman Daura I knew. I believe he is still the same today and will be the same tomorrow.
Simon Shango is a farmer in Pika, Gboko LGA