Senator Shehu Sani Senator Shehu Sani (APC, Kaduna Central) has flayed seven governors from his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, for asking President Muhammadu Buhari to contest for the President in 2019 despite the killings going on in several parts of the country.
The APC governors, Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna), Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano), Yahaya Bello (Kogi), Abubakar Bello (Niger), Simon Lalong (Plateau), Ibrahim Geidam (Yobe) and Jibrilla Bindow (Adamawa), had on Friday visited the President at the Presidential Villa in Abuja asking him to seek re-election in 2019.
This came barely 24 hours after 73 persons killed by suspected herdsmen in Benue were buried.
The senator took to his official Twitter handle on Saturday to condemn the governors’ endorsement, describing it as unfortunate.
“Seven governors in the Villa asking President Buhari to run at this material time when all hands should be on deck to advise or support him to end the mindless bloodletting and carnage in the country is most unfortunate. Human reasoning and human conscience where art thou?” he said.
Governor El-Rufai told journalists after the meeting that they (the governors) wanted the President to contest the 2019 election.
He said: They have no apologies for that. We believe in Mr. President, we want him to continue running the country in the right direction. People can speculate about 2019; we have no apologies,” El-Rufai had said.
He added that the governors, mostly first termers, were interested in “continuity and stability”.
5 of the 10 Super Mushshak aircraft procured by Nigeria from Pakistan to fight insurgency in the country
One of the 10 Super Mushshak aircraft procured by Nigeria from Pakistan to fight insurgency in the country
By Amos Tauna,
Kaduna (Nigeria) – Determined to enhance and sustain the process of building capacity to effectively prosecute the counter insurgency – operations in the North East and other forms of criminality in the country, the Nigerian government has procured new Super Mushshak aircraft.
The new aircraft, five in number, form the final batch of a total of 10 Super Mushshak aircraft procured by the present administration initiated in the year 2016.
Air Vice Marshal Olatokunbo Adesanya, Director of Public Relations and Information, Nigerian Air Force, in a statement said the Air Force had taken delivery of the second batch of Super Mushshak trainer aircraft ordered from Pakistan.
The statement explained that the Chief of Logistics at NAF Headquarters, Air Vice Marshal Bello Garba, received the new aircraft on behalf of the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, stressing that a combined team of NAF and Pakistan Air Force, PAF, personnel were also on hand to assist in offloading the new aircraft and some parts which came in crates.
In addition, the statement said , officials of the Nigerian Customs Service and the Nigerian Immigration Service were present to ensure necessary documentation. “The newly delivered aircraft, which are capable of being used for acrobatics training, are all brand new and fitted with digital glass cockpit,” it noted.
“As at 2015, local primary flying training in the NAF was almost grounded thereby necessitating the procurement of the Super Mushshak Aircraft.
“Consequently, with the delivery of the new Super Mushshak aircraft, primary flying training of NAF pilots at 401 Flying Training School, FTS, Kaduna has just received a boost,” the statement observed.
The NAF took delivery of the first batch of 5 brand new Super Mushshak Aircraft on 14 July 2017, following which the aircraft were inducted and deployed for primary training of NAF pilots.
Following the arrival of the new Super Mushshak aircraft in July last year, some NAF personnel had undergone training in Pakistan, as Instructor Pilots and technicians on the Super Mushshak aircraft, as part of the contract.
The statement noted that the delivery went without any hitch and the Ilyushin 76 Aircraft has departed from Nigeria.
“The newly received aircraft will now be assembled in Nigeria by a team of PAF and NAF technicians prior to test flying and formal induction into the NAF,” the statement explained.
Fleet of Customised Innoson Made Vehicles Purchased by Nigerian Army for Military Operations in the Country
By our Reporter
Nigerian Army says it has started taking delivery of some of the vehicles it has ordered from Innoson Motor Manufacturing Company.
In an announcement on its Facebook Wall, the Nigerian Army says, it “further configured [the vehicles] fit for deployment into Operation LAFIYA DOLE theatre of operations.”
Last year the Nigerian Army went into contract with the Company to manufacture customised vehicles for military operations across the country.
Fleet of Innoson Made Vehicles Purchased by Nigerian Army for Military Operations in the Country
Fleet of Innoson Made Vehicles Purchased by Nigerian Army for Military Operations in the Country
Gombe (Nigeria) – A Non-governmental Organization, Marie Stopes Nigeria has solicited the support of traditional and religious leaders in the country towards improving advocacy, mobilization and increase demand on uptake of Family Planning services.
Marie Stopes Regional Manager Northeast, Elizabeth Tondu told Journalists shortly after a Meeting with Religious and Traditional leaders in Gombe state that engaging Traditional and Religious leaders would contribute greatly to the 36 percent national target contraceptive prevalence rate.
“The traditional and religious leaders are key stakeholders and their involvement is an integral part of the success achieved and the meeting with them is an opportunity to attract government participation as key stakeholders and also to improve mobilization in the localities.
“This will ensure that the message is able to reach more clients in rural and per-urban communities and improved partnership with government and more participation of key stakeholders.
Elizabeth said that Marie Stopes has championed the concept of mobile outreach and public sector support in Nigeria which have increased access to modem contraceptives to the poor, vulnerable and hard to reach location.
It also provides free high quality short term, long acting and permanent methods of family planning to rural communities across Nigeria.
“Using the infrastructure of public health Centres, outreach teams increase contraceptive choices in these communities where existing public and private health clinics struggle to meet the needs of women and men
“Family planning has been identified as a pillar of safe motherhood in its ability to reduce the consequence of unintended pregnancies, including maternal and child mortality.”
Gov. Samuel Ortom of Bunue State, North Central Nigeria
Gov. Samuel Ortom of Bunue State, North Central Nigeria
By Amos Tauna
Kaduna (Nigeria) – A civil activist group, Middle Belt Conscience Guard (MBCG), has accused Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, north central Nigeria, of employing self- serving, admission of incompetence and failure in the task of leadership following the incessant killings by suspected Fulani herdsmen in the state.
The group expressed dismay that despite the situation the people found themselves in the state, Governor Ortom attached premium to partisanship and quest for re- election even at the detriment of the lives of his subjects by politicizing the crisis to gain political sympathy.
Prince Raymond Enero Convener, and Dr. Paul Itodo Deputy Convener Middle Belt expressed these views in a letter addressed to the Governor.
“Sir, you are pretending to be sympathetic, and so, you divert attention by shouting everywhere about Fulani herdsmen killings. But you have forgotten easily that your refusal to pay salaries of Benue civil servants has killed far more greater number of people than your instigated herdsmen crisis in Benue State.
“Let us remind you that you once wept for civil servants but what is the situation today? We marvel at your lust for power and the very crude means you have deployed to consolidate it.
“Today, you have attempted to discolour and shield your shadows behind the crisis, by trumpeting the passage of the Benue State Anti-Open Grazing Law, which you drum as responsible for the current crisis. This is the handiwork of untrained men with guns without food and money in their pocket.
“This is the height of your deception and hypocrisy against the people of Benue State. Time is extremely overripe for you to do the needful by honourably resigning your position as the executive Governor of Benue state without further delay.
“Mr. Governor, let truth be told courageously that you have failed the people of Benue state and Middle Beltans generally in safeguarding their lives and property.
“We are worried that your hands are soiled with the blood of the innocent victims of the multiple crises you have created in the state and therefore unclean and unfit to continue to be entrusted with the sacred mandate of the people to preside over the fate and destiny of Benue people and the state.
“We are now compelled to accept the widely circulated notion that , you are a Governor and leader who is deliberating creating violence and killings, to cause displacements of victims as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), whom you assemble in camps and wait for governments, sympathizers and humanitarians to donate/extend relief in kind and cash. Such avenues provide your numerous aides with added opportunity to exploit the hapless victims and get richer.”
The group observed that it could no longer subscribe to the governor’s futile arguments or tolerate his grandstanding on the perennial farmers/herders conflict in the Middle Belt, which his leadership has clandestinely exploited in Benue state for obvious political reasons.
“We are no doubt perplexed that in spite of the frightening dimension the crisis has assumed, you are still playing the dangerous game of political correctness, instead of looking inwards to retrace your steps or correct your commissions or omissions which have apparently exacerbated the crisis.
“Mr. Governor Sir, we have keenly and closely monitored your actions proceeding events of January 2018 and what appears to be your disguised posture of silently nurturing the crisis and promoting this bloodbath, leading to its eventual manifestations in many insidious ways than imagined. This forum is appalled at your oblique plots and manipulations to cause the problem of today, since you assumed office, which you thought may never be subjected to public scrutiny, but have kept exposing you day after day.
“Therefore, you are more delighted in creating some myth around it, by shifting the entire blame to President Muhammadu Buhari in rehearsed, by unconvincing public statements.
“You have elected upon yourself to ridicule the office of Mr. President and a leader of Nigeria who has attested in words and deeds that the security of lives and property of Nigerians anywhere they reside in the country is paramount and not negotiable.
“However, blinded by your own fury for a deal gone awry, your desperation to push the blame on an innocent leader is really sickening. Or else, how could you speak glowing about Mr. President ignoring the crisis in Benue state, but gleefully ignore your conscious arming of youths in Benue state as Civilian JTF and Livestock Guards? Is that what you do with security votes?
“Sir, we recall with a lot of displeasure the early attempts by your government to covertly launch the crisis of today, by pretending to initiate an amnesty programme, where you claimed arms and ammunitions were recovered from youths in the state. But we shall not remind you that the amnesty programme was a cover or camouflage, as your government blindfolded the public and used this platform to allegedly re-arm different militias in your state.
“The re-arming of the Benue State civilian JTF and others have resulted to the current crisis. It is also intriguing that upon the arrest of the armed Benue Civilian JTF members who confessed during interrogation to be sponsored by the Benue State Government, and arms supplied through one Alhaji Aliyu Tashaku, you had no patience to wait for investigations to be concluded before rushing to issue a media rebuttal, which is suspicious.
“Yet, in their confessional statements, they claimed the state government owned them five months unpaid stipends. It is not more plausible to argue that the Civilian JTF members had these weapons, even after the implementation of the anti-open grazing law in your state, but were never provoked to bloody violence, until in your accustomed manner, piled up their monthly stipends and they resorted to violence.
“Evidence of your concealed and carefully packaged evil against your people and Nigerians is adduced from the very porous and terrible security situation you plunged the state into; even while you’re so-called amnesty programme was in progress, as unidentified armed youths murdered scores of citizens in the state. This is attested by the serial and gruesome murders of Benue people, including your very senior appointees/ aides and other citizens of the state,” the statement lamented.
A dilapidated health facility in Likoro village of Kaduna State, Nigeria
By Ibrahima Yakubu
Kaduna (Nigeria) – Likoro and Unguwar Dan Yanma communities in Igabi local government area of Kaduna State, northwest Nigeria, have expressed worry about the inadequate and poor state of Primary Health Care (PHC) in the area.
Mallam Hayatu Isah, the District Head of Likoro community with a population of over 500 habitants, told newsmen that the only health facility in the area also host other communities thereby finding it difficult to cater for the number of patients that come to the PHC daily.
Hayatu said, “Our hospital is in a sorry state as you can see the building structure decaying day-by-day and we lack other facilities in the hospital including staff, among other things.”
Hayatu noted, ”The hospital is in the heart of the villagers, once it collapses, more lives of women and children including the elderly ones would be in danger, if you check inside, you will see the poor condition of all the facilities, that is why our heart beat each time we look at the hospital.”
Majority of the habitants of the two communities are Hausa and Fulanis along with other minor tribes who are predominantly farmers and fishermen, while others are into petty businesses.
According to the district head, the two communities have been in existence for hundreds of years and have been living peacefully with the neighboring communities.
The only means of transportation in the village are motorcycles and Bicycles as well as Canoe for crossing the River before reaching the other communities.
Hayatu added that the hospital has one doctor in charge of consultation, combining with other services for the entire communities, adding that it becomes impossible for the doctor to be able to attend to the large number of patients that attend the hospital daily .
He stressed the need for the rehabilitation of the hospital and more qualified health personnel in the village to reduce the high rate of maternal and infant mortality in the communities.
“lives of citizens is in danger, and to avert this, there is the need to support the community in rehabilitating the physical structure of the hospital building and drugs as one of the ways to save lives of residents,” he advised.
He added that if the hospital finally collapses, the people would face a lot of difficulties and therefore appealed to the local and Kaduna State governments to come to their aid .
He also urged authorities concerned to provide social amenities to improve their living standards.
At Unguwan Dan ‘yamma, another community with a population of over 400l, the district head, Mallam Haruna explained that patients from the community have to go to Likoro hospital for medical attention as they have none.
“Our women attend their anti-natal and deliver their babies in the hospital happily, but lack of health personnel has always been the problem because we have only one doctor in the villages,” he explained.
He added that Likoro hospital is in bad condition, saying, “We are worried about the situation of the hospital because this is the only place where our women and children usually go for any medical attention, and if this hospital finally get destroyed without any effort by the government, our people will surely suffer.”
Haruna then called on the Kaduna State government to quickly intervene in other to save the lives of hundreds of villagers.
Kaduna (Nigeria) – A sustainable succession action plan has been drawn up by advocacy groups that will take over the operations of the Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative in 2020.
Part of the plans which roll up to 2023 is derivable from those of the Family Health Advocates in Nigeria Initiative (FHANI), with additional inputs generated during a 3- day workshop held in Kaduna, Northwest, Nigeria.
Apart from FHANI which is registered and being supported by some donor partners along with NURHI, other advocacy groups which attended the workshop from Kano, Ogun and Delta states are in the process of registering with Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission – the government body saddled with responsibility of registering businesses.
It is against this background, that the groups, mainly family planning Advocacy Working Groups, in the states resolved to among others adapt and modify FHANI’s constitution and guidelines for implementation.
Key areas of implementation are inclusion of youth in the advocacy groups, leadership skills development, membership drive and networking with other similar groups nationally and internationally.
Mobilization of human and financial resources, including engagement of additional professionals and expanded networking with key partners.
The workshop also considered the importance of data, which would help the groups, not only in programming, but assessing their activities.
Meanwhile, FHANI has reassured its determination to expand activities beyond Kaduna to other states in the northwest of the country in no distance future.
It also promised to serve as an institution for policy and youth led organization.
FHANI chairman, Muhammed Shehu Makarfi said at the closing of the workshop that the advocacy group is also poised to attain a brand name in family planning in Nigeria.
He thanked NURHI and other donor partners for acknowledging the activities of FHANI.
