SGF: APC LEADERS ROOT FOR ONU

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).
He also served as the first chairman of the conference of elected governors, and among other reforms, appointed non-Abians into the state civil service as a way of uniting Nigeria.
THISDAY gathered that the APC leaders believe that Onu towers above several other politicians from the South-east in terms of experience, exposure and integrity.

MILITARY ALONE CAN’T END INSURGENCY – OBASANJO

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 werecaused 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.
“According to Obasanjo, a situation, such as in Nigeria, where one section had an educational attainment level of 79 per cent while another had only 19 per cent, created room for conflict.”
The former president also called on Nigeria and other African countries to pursue economic integration on the basis of regional economic communities rather than doing so with the over 54 countries on the continent.

BUHARI CONSIDERS BALANCE IN SGF CHOICE

Three All Progressives Congress (APC) chiefs and a seasoned bureaucrat are in the race for Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).
President Muhammadu Buhari is yet to make up his mind on who gets the job. Besides, he is battling to stave off pressure.
Those either interested or being strongly recommended for the SGF are ex-Governor Rotimi Amaechi (South-South), ex-Governor Ogbonnaya Onu (South-East), APC National Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun (Edo) and a former occupant of the office, Amb. Babagana Kingibe.
There is a bureaucrat from the North-East whose name was not immediately known yesterday.
There are three issues Buhari is trying to resolve:
•should the SGF go to the Northeast or the Southeouth/Southeast?
•should he be a cosmopolitan young element or an experienced bureaucrat? and
•how to avoid the “way and manner in which a former SGF turned the office into an ethnic enclave and destroyed the ethos of the civil service”.
The former SGF reportedly politicised appointments, resulting in a situation whereby two people were given letters for an office.
The President is said to be concerned about geopolitical balance in appointments.
The power sharing in the Executive and the Legislature so far has shown that only the South-South is yet to be accommodated.

Don’t take bribe, Aisha Buhari tells President’s men

The wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, Aisha has warned those around the President not to use their position to curry favours, but to key into his agenda of fighting corruption and insecurity.
Speaking while she hosted women and youths to a ‘thank you’ dinner, Mrs. Buhari said the success of the administration would depend on how the people around the President conduct themselves.
According to her, there should be a better representation of women in all arms of government in order to ensure that their concerns are better articulated.
She said: “There was nothing that people did not say about the past administration. It is not Jonathan that is not good, but the people around him.
“So, the people that are going to be around General Buhari have to be very careful because this election ended peacefully.
“We are praying and hoping that people around him should know that it took him 12 years to get to that position and they must know that they are coming to serve the masses, not General Buhari in person.  It is the people that are around him that will determine the political health of our state.
“There was nothing that people did not say about the past administration. It is not Jonathan that is not good, but the people around him.

Why states can’t pay workers’ salaries

Huge expenditures on capital projects and sundry overhead have been identified as part of the reasons many state governments in Nigeria are unable to pay their workers’ salaries for many months now, Vanguard investigations have revealed.
About 18 state governments in the country currently owe their workers salaries for periods ranging from two to 11 months as at the end of May, 2015.
States and indebtedness
Some of the effected states include Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Benue, Cross River, Ekiti, Imo, Katsina, Kogi, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers and Zamfara.
Vanguard also gathered that the states have mortgaged their federation account allocations to contractors executing various capital projects by signing irrevocable payment orders with various banks. As a result, payments to contractors and other debt instruments are deducted at source and have become first line charge on their lean resources.

WHY AREGBESOLA CAN’T PAY WORKERS’ SALARIES – BABATOPE

Osun state governor, Rauf Aregbesola, cannot pay the salary of workers in the state due to the huge amount of money he spent to prosecute his re-election, former Minister of Transport, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, has said.
Babatope, a member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who disclosed this in a chat with Daily Independent on Sunday, said Aregbesola borrowed a lot of money to fund his re-election and he is now trying to pay back the loan, hence his inability to pay salaries of workers.
He added that he had predicted in an interview he granted shortly after the Osun governorship election that Aregbesola overspent money during the election and that this will have terrible effect on the economy of Osun state.
Go and check the newspapers precisely Daily Independent and New Telegraph and see the interviews I granted shortly after the Osun governosrship election in 2014.
Babatope said: “Then I said Aregbesola spent so much in the election that we believe that in the next nine months, it will be extremely difficult for the APC government in Osun state, led by Aregbesola to pay salaries of staff. If he does so I will give him kudos”.

BUHARI PLANS MILITARY SHAKE-UP, ANGRY WITH DSS

There are indications that President Muhammadu Buhari may carry out a major shake-up in the top echelons of the military.
It was learnt that service chiefs and other senior officers across the various arms of the military might be relieved of their posts to pave way for new hands.
Findings showed that Buhari would replace the service chiefs with equally experienced officers.
It was gathered that all but one of the military chiefs would be disengaged by the President, while appointing new officers who would be expected to implement the new phase of the war against the Boko Haram sect in the North-East.
Sources said that there was anxiety in the military over the looming change of guard which is expected to affect all the services, including the Army, Navy, and the Air Force.
It was gathered that the military chiefs were acutely aware of the fate that might befall them, having reached the pinnacle of their career.
A source said that the President may be considering one of the security chiefs to ensure smooth transition between the present military chiefs and their successors.
But another source said this was not likely, noting that the only security chief that might be retained is the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, who was appointed a few months ago by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
One of our correspondents gathered that Buhari would likely appoint his “loyalists” and those he had worked with into top positions.

OSUN CRISIS, BEYOND MY CONTROL – AREGBESOLA

Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State on Friday said the economic situation in the state that led to his administration’s inability to pay workers’ salaries was beyond his control.
He said it was heart-rending that he had found himself in the situation which he described as a quagmire.
Aregbesola spoke with State House correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari behind closed-doors at the Defence House in Abuja.
He said he was not happy the same way a head of a family would feel when he cannot meet the needs of his family members.
He said, “No head of the family will be happy that he cannot feed members of the family.
“Extend that to state, it is heart-rending that I am in this quagmire.
“But no matter how sad (I don’t want to use the word ‘depressed’), no matter how unhappy I am, the truth is that I will not fail to say that it is a situation absolutely beyond my control.
“I led an administration in receipt of regular allocation in which I do my budget.
“Unfortunately, this allocation started falling in rapid form that totally disorganised my budget and any other arrangement.”
Aregbesola said those who want to be objective would readily admit that the Osun State of November 2010 when he assumed office and Osun of today are not the same.
He said people must give credit to the changes that his administration had brought about in the state, saying the changes were not miracles but were occasioned by application of resources.
The governor further explained that with the unexpected and sharp decline in revenue, his administration had a dislocation.

BUHARI NEEDS MORE TIME TO APPOINT CABINET - AHMED JODA

President Muhammadu Buharideserves a little more time to appoint his cabinet members, the chairman of his transition committee, Alhaji Ahmed Joda, has said.
Joda said this in an interview with State House journalists yesterday after submitting to Buhari, an 800-page report of the memoranda and presentations its committee received from across the country. 
He explained that transfer of power from one political party to another as recently witnessed Nigeria requires a long process.
According to him, this is part of the evolution of democracy, and that Nigerians have to be a bit more patient as such evolution cannot be with immediate effect
He noted that political appointment was entirely the president’s prerogative, saying Buhari would go through the committee’s report and understand its recommendation.
On the insinuation that the submission of the report delayed political appointments, Joda said one of the terms of reference of his committee was to get the handover notes from former president Goodluck Jonathan, but that the committee did not receive it until weeks after its inauguration. 

“You are a Big Betrayer” Tinubu tells President Buhari

                             
A Former Governor of Lagos State and the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu has surprisingly criticized President Muhammadu Buhari, saying he betrayed the party.

This is in the wake of events that led to the emergence of Ex-Kwara State Governor Bukola Saraki as the President of the Eighth Senate and the return of Chief Ike Ekweremadu as the Deputy Senate President for a third term.

Tinubu, who on Wednesday through the Nation Newspaper, in an article titled “The untold story of PDP’s coup behind Saraki’s Senate Presidency” pointed an accusing finger at President Buhari for displaying neutrality in who emerges as the Senate President without due regard to the fate of the party.

According to Tinubu; “Despite the choice of National Assembly leaders being a mixture of party politics and legislative duty, the aloofness, or the perceived neutrality of the President allowed the ‘fight’ within APC to fester until it went of hand.”