5 of the 10 Super Mushshak aircraft procured by Nigeria from Pakistan to fight insurgency in the country
5 of the 10 Super Mushshak aircraft procured by Nigeria from Pakistan to fight insurgency in the country
The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadiq Abubakar said the Nigerian Air Force acquired 30 aircraft and activated 13 grounded ones in the last three years.
Abubakar disclosed this on Saturday at the inauguration of the new Headquarters of Air Training Command, and the Sports complex at the Air Force Comprehensive School in Kaduna.
He said professionalism was about providing serviceable equipment and making case to the Federal Government to provide equipment required.
“I am very happy in the last three years, we were able to acquire 18 aircraft, similarly the Federal Government have paid for additional 12 aircraft, if put together is 30,” Abubakar said.
“Professionalism is also ensuring that we activate what currently we have; hence we embarked on renovation of our grounded aircraft.
“So far, we have activated 13 aircraft and working on the 14 to15 ones both in Port Harcourt in Rivers State,’’ Abubakar said.
According to him, professionalism is having the right structure, hence the decision to unbundle the former Training Command to Air Training Command and Ground Training Command.
He disclosed that the NAF increased its manpower from 1,000 a year to 1,500 minimum annually.
“We also recognised the need to have required numbers of officers, in addition to the one coming from Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) and that is why we enlisted 400 Direct Short Service Commission Officers’’ he said.
The CAS also pledged to improve the welfare of personnel hence it embarked on construction of accommodation and renovation of existing ones including office accommodation.
He said that the NAF was able to make the achievements through the support of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Earlier, the Air Officer Commanding (AOC) Air Training Command, AVM Muhammad Idris, commended Abubakar for his visionary and well thought leadership.
He said the construction of the air training command headquarters was completed in eight months.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described the Speaker of House of Representatives, Mr Yakubu Dogara, as“a political paperweight in Bauchi,” saying he is not on the ground in his home state.
The APC National Publicity Secretary, Mr Yekini Nabena, said this in a statement on Thursday in Abuja, while reacting to Dogara’s defection to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“We have received several media requests for a reaction to the purported defection of Dogara from the APC to one of the opposition political parties, as reported in the media.
“In reacting, I want to quote a recent comment by President Muhammadu Buhari, aptly sums up Dogara’s reported defection: “the weakest people whose senses of expectation do not align with our vision have exited our party.
“Indeed, all politics is local; as a party, we empathise with Dogara on his despair over his political future given the fact that he is not on ground and a political paperweight in his home Bauchi State.
“In his emergence as Speaker, Dogara was merely used by his political master to achieve their selfish political ends at the time, they have since moved on to pursue their individual political aspirations and left Dogara in the cold,” he said.
The APC spokesman, however, advised Dogara against his decision to re-contest his House of Representatives seat under the opposition party he was linked with because, according to him, a crushing and humiliating defeat awaits him.
He said as a party, the APC remained united and committed to its progressive ideology, urging APC faithful to consolidate on the party’s strengths and collectively go into the 2019 general elections as a united and strong political fighting force.
This resolve, Nabena said, was critical to sustenance of the change agenda that the party is implementing for the benefit of ordinary Nigerians.
He said Dogara’s reported defection, however, did not come to the APC leadership as a surprise, judging by his anti-party antics in the National Assembly.
He accused the speaker and President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, of exploiting “all available avenues to sabotage and undermine the APC-led executive”.
He further noted that Dogara’s anti-party stance, which allegedly enabled one of the opposition party’s sole victory in Bogoro Local Government Area (Dogara’s council) during the recent Bauchi South Senatorial by-election won by the APC, was another pointer, among several others.
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Yusuf Magaji Bichi, as new Director-General of the Department of State Service (DSS).
Malam Garba Shehu, the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, who confirmed this in a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday, said the appointment is with immediate effect.
According to him, the appointee is a core Secret Service operative.
He attended Danbatta Secondary School, the Kano State College of Advanced Studies and the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria where he graduated with a degree in Political Science.
The new Director-General began his career in the security division of the Cabinet Office in Kano, from where he joined the defunct Nigerian Security Organization (NSO), the precursor of the present DSS.
He said Bichi had undergone training in intelligence processing analysis, agent handling recruitment and intelligence processing in the UK, as well as strategic training at the National Defence College.
“The new DSS boss comes to the job with skills in intelligence gathering, research analysis, conflict management, general investigation, risk and vulnerability operations, counter intelligence and protective operation and human resources management.
In the course of his career, Mr. Bichi has worked as the State Director of Security in Jigawa, Niger, Sokoto and Abia States,” he added.
He was at various times the Director, National Assembly Liaison, (National War College), Director at National Headquarters in the Directorate of Security Enforcement, Directorate of Operations, Directorate of Intelligence, Directorate of Inspection and Directorate of Administration and Finance.
Bichi also served as Director at State Service Academy.
Nigerian Government has described Labour’s 14-day ultimatum as “a subtle blackmail” to stampede the Tripartite Committee on the new National Minimum Wage.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, stated this at a news conference on Thursday in Abuja, noting that the ultimatum was uncalled for.
The organised labour has accused the Federal Government of stalling the negotiation by failing to mention a figure as a new minimum wage for the Nigerian workers.
The organised labour also issued the Federal Government 14 days, insisting that the Tripartite Committee on the new National Minimum Wage concluded its work within the stipulated time frame.
According to Ngige, it is not true that the Federal Government is trying to stall negotiations.
“The following facts speak in that direction, if the Federal Government is not interested why did Mr President inaugurate the Presidential Committee on the new National Minimum Wage.
“If it is not interested, Mr President would have asked me to do an inter-ministerial meeting, but Mr President took interest and set up a presidential committee. “This Presidential Committee, he monitors it and I also brief him from time to time, both written and verbally.
“As a matter of fact, before the meeting adjourned last week, I have told the committee that the Economic Management Team could not hold.
This is due to the fact that most people in the team travelled with Mr President to China.
“Also if the Federal Government is not interested, why will l brief the entire tripartite committee and tell them that work is in progress, “he said.
The minister also noted that he had requested for two weeks from the committee to enable the Federal Government delegation consult with state government delegation.
“That means that the meeting can be called at any time, in one day or within three days which is still stipulated within the month of September.
“So it is very surprising to know that labour gave ultimatum of 14 days to the Federal Government, this is uncalled for and a subtle blackmail to the Federal Government.
He also said that the chairperson of Tripartite Committee on the new National Minimum Wage would lead a delegation on Friday to brief Mr President on the negotiations so far.
Ngige further assured Nigerians workers that there was no cause for alarm, adding that Federal Government was working assiduously to ensure the implementation of the minimum wage, soonest.
“We were unable to fix a figure because of many factors that have occurred.
“For example, the components in review, organised labour finds easy to give a figure.
“They have brought a figure which is N56, 000 and later change it to N65,000 and it is within their ambit to do so.
“The organised private sector also brought a figure, initially they brought N42, 000, and by last week before the Committee on National Minimum Wage adjourned they brought their own figure down to N25, 000.
“The organised private sector also took into account the economic situation in the country, the ability to pay and the ability to enhance and create new jobs in the country.
“So it is important for us to look at all those things because one of the cardinal principles of the International Labour Organisation is the minimum wage fixing, which is the ability to pay.”
He also said that the Federal Government had requested that the state governors give a tentative figure, noting that they had not yet been able to make available.
The minister further said that the Federal Government delegation had written, as a committee, to the state governments and had also followed it up with visits and is still awaiting their response.
Ngige said that the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) had further requested for time to do more work on what their delegation in the committee had proposed and requested for an extension of time.
The Charge d’ Affaires of China Embassy in Nigeria, Mr Lin Jing, says China is not a Father Christmas, but rather, looking for a win-win partnership with Africa and Nigeria.
Jing made this declaration on Thursday in Abuja at a roundtable on the Review Dialogue on the just concluded 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
At the roundtable organised by the Centre for China Studies, Jing shed light on the cooperation between China and Africa, particularly Nigeria with regards to free interest loan from China to the continent.
“China has never been a ‘Father Christmas’as you can see from the theme of the just concluded FOCAC, which is “China and Africa: Toward An Even Stronger Community with a Shared Future through Win-Win Cooperation”.
“It is win-win cooperation and to join hands to build a closer and stronger community with a better future between China and Africa. So, our cooperation is mutually beneficial.
“Sometimes, China gives loan and takes later. Sometimes we give and ask in return,” he said.
Jing said that China-Africa relations were gaining global attention as their practical cooperation has brought about dramatic changes in the economic landscape across Africa and real benefits to both people.
While allaying the fear of another debt trap in Africa, he explained that China was ready to work closely with each African country to ensure that debt trap was avoided in Africa-China relations.
“Through consultation and dialogue, we have been able to solve problem in our cooperation including the debt payment; and we are ready to closely work with African countries,” he said.
The envoy further explained that China loans only accounts for 8.5 per cent of Nigeria’s foreign debt profile.
He said that China was committed to the development of FOCAC and to deepening China-Africa comprehensive strategy and cooperative partnership.
Jing said the success of FOCAC had fully demonstrated that the relationship between China and Africa has solid foundation, adding, “China Africa cooperation is strong and it is ongoing and never ending”.
Speaking, Amb. Usman Sarki, a former Deputy Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the UN, called for better understanding of the relationship between China and Nigeria.
Sarki said that there was need to focus on how to explore the benefits of the relationship, especially the outcome of FOCAC and maximise it for the development of the country.
“We should have structural and administrative framework for implementing decision taken at level of heads of state and government in FOCAC.
“It very important to have parliamentary input toward setting up of mechanism at the national level to handle trade investment and other matters related to China –Nigeria relations.
“Financing and access to technology should be very critical consideration by Nigeria without it we cannot develop and attain the level of development that we are all yearning to attain,” he said.
Sarki said that the line of investments coming from China within the framework of FOCAC must target key pillars of development of Nigeria mainly infrastructure, agriculture, food security and human development.
He stressed that focus should be, especially in the area of education, health, healthcare, poverty alleviation, among others, noting that emphasis should also be on women empowerment in Africa.
According to him, in China today, women are aggressively coming to the forefront in terms of development, entrepreneurship even commercial activities, that women are targeted across the continent,
“We also attract and develop strategies for accessing the amount that has been granted by China to Africa.
“In 2015 at the Johannesburg, China pledged 250 billion dollars; in the last three years, we do not know how much of it has been accessed.
“There must be very clear framework and mechanism for accessing these funds; determining how far they have been used toward the intended purposes by which they were created,” he said.
The Nigerian Air Force says the the Air Task Force (ATF) of Operation LAFIYA DOLE has destroyed a Boko Haram vehicle and neutralised scores of the insurgents at Tumbun Rego on the fringes of Lake Chad in Borno.
Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, who disclosed this in a statement on Thursday in Abuja, said that the operation was carried out on Wednesday.
“As Operation THUNDER STRIKE 2 entered the tenth day, Sept. 12, the Air Task Force (ATF) of Operation LAFIYA DOLE has recorded significant successes against Boko Haram Terrorists (BHT) in air raids conducted at Tumbun Rego on the fringes of Lake Chad in Borno State.
” The attacks were conducted in successive waves, involving Nigerian Air Force (NAF) F-7Ni and Alpha Jet combat aircraft.
” As well as Mi-35M Helicopter Gunships supported by Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platforms.resulting in the destruction of a BHT vehicle and neutralization of scores of insurgents.
” Characteristic of the insurgents’ tactics, the BHT fighters were initially well camouflaged under foliage and inside abandoned buildings within the settlement.
” However, timely intelligence enabled the ISR platforms to track and locate one of the BHT vehicles as it was entering the settlement,” he said.
Daramola said that the vehicle was engaged and destroyed by the attack aircraft.
” Subsequent waves of attack targeted the scores of insurgents that emerged from their hiding places after the attack on the vehicle. These were engaged in turns by the attack aircraft and neutralised,” he said.
In another development, Daramola said the ATF conducted several ISR and Close Air Support missions throughout the night of 12 and early morning of Sept.13, in support of troops of the 145 Nigerian Army Battalion, ensuring that the BHTs’ attack at Damasak was thwarted.
He said the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, was in Maiduguri Sept.13 to again assess progress of the operation as well as boost the morale of the frontline troops.
The NAF spokesman said Abubakar seized the opportunity to commend the Command and personnel of the ATF for their efforts.
He said the CAS also urged them to sustain the momentum of operations with a view to locating and destroying all remnants of the insurgents within the fringes of Lake Chad and other areas in Northern Borno.
Warnings to other African countries over debt burden
Port of Djibouti (photo: intelligence briefs)
Beijing’s cumulative loans to Africa since 2000 amounted to $124-billion by 2016, according to figures compiled by the China-Africa Research Initiative (CARI).
Djibouti is projected to take on public debt worth around 88 percent of the country’s overall $1.72 billion GDP, with China owning the lion’s share of it.
On March 2018, Djibouti signed a partnership agreement with a Singaporean company that works with China Merchants Port Holdings Co. or CMPort—the same state-owned corporation that gained control of the Hambantota port in Sri Lanka—to build the Doraleh Multipurpose Port.
In recent years, China has emerged as a key investor and a generous, ready and easy lender to African countries.
Beijing’s cumulative loans to Africa since 2000 amounted to $124-billion by 2016, according to figures compiled by the China-Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in the United States.
Angola, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo respectively, were the top beneficiaries of these loans. Angola’s oil-related loans worth $21.2 billion since 2000 total roughly a quarter of cumulative Chinese loans to the entire continent.
“Half of those loans were given in the past four years,” Janet Eom, an associate researcher at CARI, told DW. “So Africa’s debt to China is becoming more of a concern moving forward.”
While African Presidents are at least this time round somehow exempted from the indignity of being talked down while clutching their begging bowls at western capitals before a few notes is thrown into their bowls, the readily available Chinese loans are not entirely risk free.
Economists and other international financial institutions are becoming increasingly worried that the East Asian giant under a careful disguised “debt trap” diplomacy is burying many developing and poor countries in massive debt and then forcing the highly indebted countries to hand over some of their key infrastructures’ such as the case of Sri Lanka.
One such African country that is exhibiting all the red flag signals of going Sri Lankan and now Zambian way is Djibouti.
Djibouti lies more than 2,500 miles from Sri Lanka but the East African country faces a predicament similar to what its peer across the sea confronted in 2017, after borrowing more money from China than it could pay back.
In both countries, the money went to infrastructure projects under the aegis of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Sri Lanka racked up more than $8 billion worth of debt to Chinese sovereign-backed banks at interest rates as high as 7 percent reaching a level too high to service. With nearly all its revenue going toward debt repayment, in 2017 after being pushed to the wall, Sri Lanka threw in the towel and handed over the Chinese-built port at Hambantota under a 99-year lease with China having a 70 percent stake.
Djibouti is projected to take on public debt worth around 88 percent of the country’s overall $1.72 billion GDP, with China owning the lion’s share of it, according to a report published in March by the Center for Global Development.
At the end of 2016 China owned 82% of Djibouti’s external debt.
On March 2018, Djibouti signed a partnership agreement with a Singaporean company that works with China Merchants Port Holdings Co. or CMPort—the same state-owned corporation that gained control of the Hambantota port in Sri Lanka—to build the Doraleh Multipurpose Port.
That project was completed in May 2017.
The port is significant not only because it sits next to China’s only overseas military base but also because it is the main access point for American, French, Italian and Japanese bases in Djibouti and is used — because of its strategic location — by parts of the U.S. military that operate in Africa, the Middle East and beyond.
One concern is that the Djibouti government, facing mounting debt and increasing dependence on extracting rents, would be pressured to hand over control of Camp Lemonnier to China.
In a letter to National Security Advisor John Bolton in May, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), two members of the Senate Armed Service Committee, wrote that Djibouti’s President Guelleh seems willing to “sell his country to the highest bidder,” undermining U.S. military interests.
“Djibouti’s now identified as one of those countries that are at high risk of debt distress. So, that should be sending off all sorts of alarm bells for Djiboutians as well as for the countries that really rely on Djibouti, such as the United States,” said Joshua Meservey, a senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation.
And that’s not all, China is not done yet with Djibouti, Beijing has been earmarked the country as one of 68 countries set to be involved in its ambitious One Belt and One Road Initiative (OBOR).
Problem is eight of the 68 countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative currently face unsustainable debt levels, according the Center for Global Development’s report.
The eight nations are Djibouti, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, the Maldives, Mongolia, Montenegro, Pakistan, and Tajikistan.
As past experiences have shown the eight nations will certainly be enticed to chew more than they can swallow and by the end of it end up being even poorer than they are now.
As the cradle of mankind continues to sink deeper into debt condemning future generations to economic slavery, the late Whitney Houston feat Deborah Cox classic ‘Same Script, Different Cast’ has never rang truer.
Speaker, House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara receiving PDP House of Reps Nomination & Expression of Interest Forms for 2019 elections from Hon. Mohammed Adamu Jambil on behalf of people of
Bogoro/Dass/Tarawa Balewa Federal Constituency. With him are: Hon. Sabo Garba (left), Chief of Staff to the Speaker, Hon. Jerry Manwe ( 2nd right) and Hon. Ahmed Yerima (right) at the Speaker’s residence in Abuja on 13th Sept. 2018.
….give me time to consult with my APC supporters – Dogara
Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara receiving PDP House of Reps Nomination & Expression of Interest Forms for 2019 elections from Mohammed Adamu Jambil on behalf of people of Bogoro/Dass/Tarawa Balewa Federal Constituency, at the Speaker’s residence in Abuja on 13th Sept. 2018.
By Joseph Edegbo
Hundreds of supporters of Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, from Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa Balewa Federal constituency of Bauchi State have presented Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) nomination and expression of interest forms to the Speaker, urging him to leave the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
About 1000 people in Thursday thronged his Abuja residence, saying they decided to present the PDP forms for the Speaker as a result of high level injustice meted on them by the APC.
Hon. Mohammed Aminu Tukur, Alhaji Adamu Jambil and Mrs. Amina Saleh, who led the delegation and spoke on behalf of the of the constituents, said their new political platform is Dogara Peoples Party as they will follow him wherever he goes.
While speaking, Aminu Tukur told the Speaker that the APC is now plagued by injustice and dictatorship, contrary to their expectations that under President Muhammadu Buhari, the party will be fair to all.
“The day Buhari joined partisan politics in 2002, I was the only person from Bauchi that travelled and I have been with him since then. Mr Speaker, I swear to almighty God that He spared my life. I and our people will vote for you and we urge you to heed to our cries and accept this form. We pray that God returns you to your seat. APC is not a religion as it is neither Islam nor Christianity,” Aminu Tukur said.
For his part, Adamu Jambil, who is a former deputy chairman of Tafawa Balewa local government, said, “The people have sent us to you with these forms. Bauchi State today is retrogressing. They have not constructed 30 kilometres of roads but they are busy lying that they have done 500 kilometres.
“Our people have sent us to tell you that they will not allow anybody to humiliate you. They love you and will not allow APC to embarrass you and turn around to you beg you to remain in their party. They said we should tell you that as their son, they are not giving you any option but directing you to accept these forms and leave the APC. They said time has gone so they will not give you any option and if you refuse to listen to them, they will desert you. But we know you are an obedient child and you will listen to your parents. Whether you like it or not, you must leave the APC. This is the message from our people to you.We have seen all the good works you are doing and they have sent us to tell you that they will not allow you to rest.”
On her part, Mrs. Amina Saleh, from Dass local government, said women in the constituency have sent her to inform the Speaker that they will be with him: come rain, come shine.
She said, “You told us to join APC and we did. We worked for the party but they have betrayed us and that is why we said instead of building another house, it is better we return to our former home where we are more welcome. They are already celebrating that we are here to present these forms to you. Please our leader, we appeal to you to accept it and wipe away our tears.”
It can be recalled that the APC in Bauchi State has been engulfed in a crisis arising from failed party congresses which has led to thousands of defections and resignations of many of its chieftains and supporters.
There are also two litigation against the party instituted by aggrieved party members; one by the former adviser to the governor, Sanin Malam and another by a group of parliamentarians and other stakeholders of the party, including Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar and Dr. Yakubu Lame, among others.
Commenting, Ahmed Yerima, Sarkin Malaman Misau, member representing Misau/Danbam Federal Constituency of Bauchi State, said, “The party has failed to honour its commitments to hold direct primaries which contradicts its earlier promise of using it to resolve internal discontentment. APC had drifted faraway from its original concept of internal democracy, rather, it has now been strangulated. On a long-term, these disenchantment will lead to a disintegration of any political institution that allows imposition, money and incumbency to hijack it”.
Responding, the Speaker told the mammoth crowd that, “I have listened to you and I want to say that I am not a novice in politics. So even if they do not regard us, they should know that we are in full control of our five senses. We know what looks like justice and what is not justice, we also know if you want to humiliate or honour us.
“We built the APC in Bauchi and with time left the PDP and entered the APC. I was the first and only lawmaker from Bauchi State that left the APC then and we knew why we left. We also know what we promised the people of Bauchi State then.
“But I must thank you all. This is not the first time we would face these of kind of threats and betrayal. Our only fault is that we have chosen not to side with injustice or wrong. We always voice out when we see that we are beginning to derail from our election promises to the people and that is why some people said they will retire us from politics and have even started celebrating that they have buried us politically. But throughout all this, I remained unperturbed because I knew that we had our people with us.”
He also recalled how their supporters were denied forms during the last APC congress, despite making payments on time, adding that the new leadership of the party failed to live up to its assurance that all states that had issues with their congresses would be allowed to hold direct primaries, thereby depriving them of any hope that their supporters would have the opportunity to vote for their choice.
Hon Dogara, further said, “Truly, I have decided that I will not seek election again. They said they will give me ticket in APC but that I must go and beg for it. I said I do not need the ticket. In politics, I have never gone to anybody’s house to beg for ticket. My ticket is my people. I have assured them that even if I run under zero party, my people will vote for me. So long as it is Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa Balewa, even if we run under zero party; we will win by God’s grace. We have thrived well in many political battles in the past and this one too, we shall overcome it. Nobody can threaten us or tell us that we cannot contest election in a political party we spent our resources to establish, only God can stop us.
“I had heard your voices and the voice of the people is the voice of God. We are in politics to serve and not to be served. As I said, if it were for myself, I will quit because truly I am tired and even thought of stepping aside. But we must run election so long as our people say so.
“I have seen the forms you brought. I don’t know how you got it but I must thank you for this sacrifice. Left for me; I will appeal that you give me sometime to go and consult further.
“I have a lot of supporters in the APC but I have not told any of them what I intend to do or where I will go because I was not given the opportunity but I will assure you that wherever you want me to go or whatever you want me to do I will obey you because you have been with me. This is leadership.
“Even when they were talking about reconciliation in APC, we told them that even if I will be given free ticket in APC, so long as they do not do justice to Senator Suleiman Nazif, Senator Isa Hamma Misau, Honourable Ahmed Yerima, Hon. Aminu Tukur, Hon. Maryam Bagel and others, I will not accept it. I even said that if they will do justice to these people I will be satisfied.
“You have now given us another opportunity to correct the greatest mistake we did in politics, which was to bring this present government in Bauchi State. This is one of the reasons we must run for election and do away with this plague, chase these termites from Bauchi State.
“I will not disobey you but before I fill these forms, I will have to inform all my supporters in the APC about the decision taken by my constituents since all politics is local.”
