Plateau speaker, 10 others apprehended
By Hussaina Sufyan Ahmad
The embattled Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Abok Ayuba, and some members of his group have been arrested within the vicinity of the State Assembly in Jos, at about 3:15 pm on November 1, after laying siege in the State Assembly from dawn.
The State Police Commissioner, Edward Egbuka and some key officials of the different security outfits in the State, ushered them into Hilux vans while taking them away.
Abok was whisked away through the back gate of the State Assembly shortly after security agents bombarded the peaceful protesters and journalists with tear gas and sporadic gunshots to disperse them.
Although the House members said they were not told where they were being taken to as Abok kept shouting, “I cannot say if I am under arrest at this moment,” but it was gathered that they were taken to Abuja.
At the time of this report, security agents who had besieged the premises had withdrawn, leaving few personnel loitering around the vicinity while the teary-eyed youths reappear in groups discussing the development.
Kano Assembly blames private sectors for unemployment
By Uzair Adam Imam
Reference to the present situation of unemployment that lingers for a very long time in the state, the Kano State House of Assembly has called on the executive arm to compel private sectors to employ a certain percentage of people to reduce the menace.
A member from Takai Local Government, Alhaji Musa Ali Kachako, raised the motion, adding that: “There is an urgent need for speedy adoption of the House resolutions on the matter to ensure strict compliance by private companies and organizations.”
However, he further stated that the call has become imperative given the attitude of our private organizations in the state, such as banks and telecommunication companies, in meeting up with the federal government’s directives of employing members of host communities as staff.
Kachako also expressed his grievances, thereby pleading for the government’s intervention to tackle the lingering issue of unemployment in the state.
After careful deliberation, the House has decided to constitute an eight-member committee to thoroughly look into the matter and report back for necessary legislative action within three months.
Zamfara Attack: NSCDC Boss calls on new approach to ending banditry
By Uzair Adam Imam
While commiserating with the recent attack which claimed the lives of two members of the Joint Task Force and one police officer by bandits in Zamfara, the Commandant General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Ahmed Abubakar Audi, has advocated for a new approach to putting an end to banditry in the country.
A statement signed by the Director of Public Relations of the Corps, Olusola Odumosu, disclosed this, adding that the attack, which happened in Shinkafi, along Kauran Namoda road in Zamfara State, is not only condemnable but callous, despicable and inhuman.
While reacting to the incident, however, Audi appealed to the public members to be vigilant, security conscious, and promptly assist security agencies with credible information that will help them put the lingering issue of insecurity to an end.
He also ascertained that Corps would not rest in their efforts until they eradicate banditry, kidnapping and insurgency, among others, through concerted efforts of well-trained personnel, the introduction of more training programs and innovative strategies.
Moreover, Audi commiserated with the families and friends of those who had lost their loved ones in the bloody attack.
PDP will return to Aso Rock in 2023 – Kadade
By Uzair Adam Imam
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s National Youth Leader-elect, Prince Muhammed Kadade Suleiman, said that they will work assiduously to return PDP to Aso Rock in the forthcoming election of 2023.
Kadade declared this in a statement issued in Kaduna, adding that “Under the leadership of our newly-elected Chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, myself and other elected members of the National Working Committee (NWC), we will work assiduously to return PDP to Aso Rock in 2023.”
He added that they are well aware of the challenges currently bedeviling the youths in the country as a result of bad leadership of the APC government.
Kadade also stated that his emergence as the youth leader is a demonstration of the party’s youth inclusiveness, adding that: “Whether you voted for me or not, whether you supported me or not, I want to assure you that this is a victory not just for me, but for the entire PDP and the youth of Nigeria.”
However, Kaded also said he will be open to all, for advice, contributions and support in discharging his functions.
“Declare bandits federal civil servants”: Shehu Sani
By Hussaina Sufyan Ahmad
The former Senator of Kaduna State, representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, has urged the federal government of Nigeria to declare bandits as federal civil servants on Twitter earlier today.
The former senator said this while lamenting on the incessant killings of Christian and Muslim worshippers in their religious houses by bandits. While the government failed to declare them as terrorists.
He tweeted, “They [bandits] killed Muslim worshipers in their mosques in Niger and Katsina State; they killed Christians in their Churches in Kaduna State; if the Government doesn’t want to declare them terrorists, it should declare them federal civil servants.”
Rethinking the NYSC redeployment and service in absentia
By Bilyamin Abdulmumin
After the ugly event between 1967 and 1970 in Nigeria that threatened to end the country’s years of coexistence, the then Federal Government sought to mend the fences by mandating one year of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) for university and, later, polytechnic graduates.
The program was made effective by ruling that prospective Corps are deployed interchangeably across regions and states. This provides a platform to understand better the country’s cultural diversity and catalogue other differences among Nigerians.
To many, the NYSC scheme is a brainchild to later life achievements, building connections that lead to many things such as jobs, skills acquisitions, marriage or lifelong friendship.
However, out of not knowing, many prospective Corps members risk missing out from this one-lifetime experience in the name of redeployment or service in absentia.
At the tail ends of the NYSC three-week orientation camp, one thing that dominates the exercise is relocation application.
The NYSC commission has provided the options for relocation after completing the three weeks orientation camp from one state of service to another on the grounds of many reasons such as health, marriage, security and what have you.
Many Corp members would seek to outsmart this relocation window, intentionally citing health grounds, among many other reasons, for the relocation. Last Thursday, during the ongoing orientation camp, Gombe State chapter DG had echoed that: “There is no need to invite sickness you do not have upon yourself for the sake of relocation”
It doesn’t take careful observation to note that most applicants are typical northerners, aka Hausa-Fulani.
This leads to an intriguing conclusion; Hausa-Fulani folks are home loving-people. Therefore, they do not want to explore other regions apart from their familiar environment despite the enormous possibilities attached with that.
These home-loving youths would come home after redeployment only to continue from where they stopped; the circle of routine activities but little do they realize that the bet wasn’t worth it.
In education, unarguably where the NYSC scheme found its most important use, many secondary schools poised as Place of Primary Assignment (PPA), especially the public ones, would improve their teaching capacity with these agile youth (bubbling with fresh ideas) who came from different backgrounds. In addition, many students would get their inspiration for future careers from these Corp members. I’m a living witness, and I have come across many friends who testified to that.
Those Corps who came away from their PPAs have only the service to offer; therefore, they are the most dedicated to their service. Service at home is a deterrent to the prospective Corp members from giving their best; therefore, it makes redeployment to home non-recommendable. On the other hand, service in absentia deprives the host PPA; it will also come back hunting the Corp members involved.
Sometimes later, whenever there is a discussion on the NYSC memories period while those who served in absentia are sent into oblivion, the deployed youths will just be cut short with little to reminisce. However, many of them never hesitate to voice their regret for being deployed to their homes or even from rural to urban cities.
When it comes to having eventful memories, serving in the rural areas is the bomb. That is where NYSC youth Corps members are treated with glamour or grandeur, unlike in urban areas. Perhaps the lack of due recognition to NYSC in the urban areas is because of the high number of youths who were once members; the society became used to the scheme.
Initially, when deployed to a particular environment, primarily rural, it depends on how rural the area is; the writing will be all over the wall that a significant readjustment is necessary, the hopeless loom large on the horizon. Cortisol level overshoot, the less tough youth (female) breakdown crying. Yet, at the same time, men who are more practical with emotions keep it within them. This traumatic experience would soon make the relocation processes continue at an unprecedented rate or invoke planning ideas of serving in absentia either by showing up just during the monthly CDSs or abdicating completely with impunity.
However, the enigma of the arrival would naturally fade away; the cortisol level would come down and, after given sufficient time, the codes of living in the newfound environment begin to be deciphered. One can then manipulate the environment to his taste until at a point after settled. Then, one begins to imagine the wind-up is fast approaching or even fantasy for an extension of the programs.
Dear Corps members currently on the camps or those coming later, avoid plunging into remorse later and shortchange the PPA community. It would be best if you rethink the idea of redeployment or service in absentia.
Bilyamin Abdulmumin is a PhD candidate, Chemical Engineering, ABU Zaria. He can be reached via bilal4riid13@gmail.com.
NDLEA nabs nursing mother over drug trafficking
By Muhammad Sabiu
The Nigerian agency saddled with the responsibility of enforcing drug laws, known as the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), has apprehended a nursing mother, who is a year-four undergraduate at the University of Benin, over drug trafficking.
The woman, identified as Mariam Dirisu, “was arrested barely a week after she was granted bail for attempting to smuggle drugs concealed in cassava flour meal called ‘akpu’ into NDLEA cell for a suspect.”
The disclosure of the apprehension is contained in a statement signed by the media director of the agency, Mr Femi Babafemi, on Sunday in Abuja.
Mr Babafemi was quoted as saying, “A nursing mother who claims to be a part-time 400-level student of International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of Benin, Mariam Dirisu had earlier been arrested for trafficking in 5kg skunk and 8.1grams of Molly.
“In the latest development, NDLEA Delta Command arrested the same Mariam on Saturday, Oct. 30 for placing orders for drugs to be delivered to her from Lagos even while on bail for the earlier offence.
“The 35-year-old mother of a two-month-old baby was first arrested on Oct. 21 by the Edo Command of NDLEA.”
Beyond the lines of “Devaluation”
By Mohammed Baba Goro
The issue of foreign exchange has been on the front burner in Nigeria’s media space for a while now. Unfortunately, the debate has been so over-flogged that one could hardly know who to cue behind for economic sense and/or who to blame about the helpless fall of Nigerian naira. Recently, the vice president of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osibanjo, who by every sense could be categorised amongst personalities with intellectual power, also frankly spoke that the Central Bank should devalue the country’s currency, naira. But, that is not the only strongest weapon that could kill the werewolf.
As an economic policy, Devaluation is simply referred to as the official reduction in the value of a country’s currency in relation to another or other countries’ currencies: say, Nigeria’s “Naira” with the United States “dollar”. Assuming the current exchange rate is thus: N410 against $1 and the CBN decides to devalue the naira by, say, 25 per cent, the naira value will decline, and the new rate will be around N512 to 513 against $1 and against the initial rate of N410. This would make the export of goods and services cheaper and importation dearer. As easy as it sounds, it is easy, but CBN will have high inflation to grapple with.
Ordinarily, that should be a path to take, but the question on the lips of every rational Nigerian is that what massive goods do Nigeria produce? This is a million-dollar question on the lips of every Nigerian for a country that, 60 years after her political independence, still struggles for her economic Independence – Nigeria still imports everything it needs, including essential food items like maise, rice beans and unfortunately, recently, even egg.
Nigeria had to lift a ban last year to import maize for poultry farmers. According to a statistic, the national average for Nigeria’s maize need is about 15million metric tonnes but can only produce 10million, going about with a huge deficit that could have been an opportunity for a source of forex. Even though rice production has increased, the country can still not satisfy its teeming and growing population of over 200 million. This is on the one hand. On the other hand, about 30 per cent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings go to the importation of petroleum products.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released another mind-boggling stats that the importation of agricultural products has increased by over 140 per cent year-on-year. Devaluation is primarily an “Expenditure-switching policy” that basically switches spending from imported goods to domestically produced goods and for exports.
But judging from the above facts and figures, one would deduce that local production that should drive export and reduce pressure on meagre forex is practically not there. So, “Beyond the lines of Devaluation” is productivity! Productivity!! And productivity!!!
Significantly, production of not only primary products but adding value to raw products so as to create more jobs, generate more revenues, build the needed infrastructures and consequently transform the economy. Brazil in 2011 devalued its currency to spur export without tackling the underlined structural problems and ended up worse off.
So let’s go back to the theory, and the economic argument should be, what determines the exchange rate?
Gustav Cassel, in the ’20s, propounded the purchasing power parity theory, which explains that the determination of two inconvertible paper currencies is determined by the equality of their purchasing power. What this means is that the exchange rate between two countries is determined by the level of their relative prices of goods and services.
A look at Nigeria’s inflation rate, coming from above 18 per cent, would tell you why we are at an exchange rate crisis and why we need to look inwardly and produce more locally. Though the Mint-gold parity theory is no longer in tune with the modern economic practices, but even the Balance of payment parity theory has its link with a country’s productivity level. Therefore, the government should deal with the fundamental and structural rigidities in productivity, trade, security, and infrastructure. Watch naira take her good position and fair value and stop forcing the monetary authority to over-stretch its instruments.
Mohammed Baba Goro can be contacted via babs9770@gmail.com.
Onyemelukwe-Onuobi wins NLNG prize for Literature, 2021 worth $100,000
By Hussaina Sufyan Ahmad
Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobi at the NLNG award night at Lagos on October 30, 2021, won the $100,000 NLNG Prize for Literature, 2021.
Chairman of the Advisory Board, The Nigeria Prize for Literature & Literary Criticism, Prof Akachi Adimorah-Ezeigbo, disclosed that Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobi’s “The Son of the House” beat two other shortlisted novels, Abi Dare’s “The Girl with Louding Voice” and Obinna Udenwe’s “Colours of Hatred” to emerge the winner.
“The journey leading to the event started several months ago with the receipt of 202 novels for the Literature Prize since the genre in focus is Prose Fiction. Immediately the Panel of Judges were constituted, they swung into action and despite the challenges imposed by the pandemic, found creative ways to do their work meticulously, using a set of 11 clearly defined and approved Criteria. The Panel of judges also worked in close coordination with the Advisory Board, and the Secretariat of the Prize to produce evaluate and prune down the 202 entries to 50, then 25. From this point, they were able to produce a long list of 11 and thereafter, a shortlist of 3,” she said.
According to Adimorah-Ezeigbo, “Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobi’s “The Son of the House” was published in 2019 by Parresia Publishers. The novel presents the predicaments of two women, Nwabulu a one-time housemaid and a successful fashion designer; and Julie, an educated woman who lived through tricks, deceits and manipulation, as they meet in captivity.
Both women decide to tell each other their stories. They soon discover that their lives had crossed at different points. The subject matter of the novel is developed through the rupture of traditional plot and the mediation of a single narrative voice. It is made up of a prologue and three-part story moments, each dominated by multiple points of narration, “The Son of the House” is an experimental novel with a complex plot structure made up of the main plot and several subordinate plots that intercept.
Again, FG extends deadline for SIM-NIN linkage
By Muhammad Sabiu
The Nigerian government has extended the deadline for the country’s mobile phone users to link their SIM cards and their National Identity Numbers (NINs).
The announcement of the extension is contained in a joint statement signed by the spokespersons of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Kayode Adegoke and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Ikechukwu Adinde.
This is not the first time the government has extended the deadline as every mobile phone user “should be able to obtain their NINs and link them with their SIMs before the end of the year.”
According to the statement, the move is due to appeals made by mobile network operators and other stakeholders.
“The decision to extend the deadline was made further to appeals by the Mobile Network Operators and other industry stakeholders, soliciting for a further extension to ensure better compliance with government’s directive and to avoid widening the digital divide.
“The extension would also provide the enabling environment for the registration of Nigerians in remote areas, diaspora, schools, hospitals, worship centres, as well as foreigners, diplomatic missions, those in other areas that were hitherto unreachable, and increase enrolments in countries with a significant number of Nigerians,” the statement read.