Federal Government
Protest: Diversion of FG’s palliatives by states fueling youths’ anger—Rep
Protest: Diversion of FG’s palliatives by states fueling youths’ anger—Rep
…wants youths to embrace dialogue with Tinubu’s Govt
Protest: Diversion of FG’s palliatives by states fueling youths’ anger—Rep
Protest: Diversion of FG’s palliatives by states fueling youths’ anger—Rep
…wants youths to embrace dialogue with Tinubu’s Govt
By Rotimi Ojomoyela, Ado-Ekiti
The House of Representatives Committee’s Chairman on Delegated Legislation Mr Femi Bamisile, on Tuesday, revealed that the diversion of the Federal Government palliatives by state governments could be one of the main reasons behind the youth’s anger and the proposed nationwide planned protests
Bamisile, who is representing Ekiti South Federal Constituency II, said democracy is about dialogue, however, warned that protests intended to be peaceful may be hijacked by evil doers as witnessed during the coordinated protests to advocate for the abolition of Police’s Special Anti Robbery Squad(SARS) codenamed ‘#endsars’, under ex-President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.
He advised those planning to protest over harrowing hardship being experienced in the country to engage in dialogue with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government.
Bamisile said these in a statement made available to journalists in Ado Ekiti, on Tuesday, advising the proponents of the proposed #endbadgovernance# protest to explore the option of negotiation.
The former Speaker, Ekiti State House of Assembly, stressed that it would be more rewarding and profitable for Nigerians, no matter how aggrieved to embrace dialogue at this trying time, than adopting the option of protest, which he said could be confrontational and counterproductive.
Bamisile added that the current hardship in the facets of high fuel pump price and skyrocketing food prices called for concerted efforts at both national and subnational levels, for Nigerians to breathe a sigh of relief, saying these accounted for the angst and anger in town.
“Protest is an alienable right of all Nigerians to agitate for any demand, provided that it will be peaceful and violence-free. But how sure are the proponents that these will be guaranteed bearing in mind what happened during the endsars protest that was hijacked by evil doers?
“Going by estimation, Lagos State lost over a trillion Naira property to endsars protest caused by burning of some of our national monuments . The organisers might mean well for the country, but they should bear in mind the political, ethnic and religious complexities of our nation.
“The country belongs to us all, nothing wrong in a coalition calling for good governance. This will be in the interest of all of us. But it has to be done in the most civilized fashion and dialogue remains the best international practice”.
In solving the raging crisis, particularly in making some of the federal government’s palliative initiatives workable, Bamisile appealed to state governors to distribute the food items supplied by Tinubu’s government fairly to buffer inflationary effect.
“Presently, the federal government is distributing 740 truckloads of rice to the 774 local governments in the country, besides the series of food palliatives that had been shared to states through our national reserves.
“Our governors must complement what the federal government was doing by making sure that these items get to the targeted population. The failure of this policy was fueling the anger in town.
“These reported cases of diversions in some states were disheartening and won’t be in the interest of anybody. I believe that citizens should begin to hold their leaders at the state level accountable for some of these wicked acts”.
Culled from Vanguard News
IduwiniVoice
Tinubu Signs New Minimum Wage Bill Into Law
By Tobouke JEMINE
President Bola Tinubu has officially signed the new minimum wage bill into law, marking a significant achievement for workers’ rights in Nigeria.
The signing ceremony, held at the State House in Abuja, concluded a period of extensive discussions involving government officials, labor unions, and the private sector.
This new legislation, witnessed by key members of the National Assembly, including Senate President Godswill Akpabio, is expected to improve living standards for many Nigerians and stimulate economic growth.
The bill has been met with widespread celebration, as workers and unions view it as a crucial victory for economic justice in the country.
Federal Government
Protest: Women affairs minister, Asari Dokubo organise peace rally in Abuja
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IduwiniVoice
Protest: Women affairs minister, Asari Dokubo organise peace rally in Abuja
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By Tobouke JEMINE
The Minister for Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy Ohanenye, and the leader of the Niger Delta Volunteer Force, Asari Dokubo, organized a mass national peace rally in Abuja, urging Nigerian women, youth leaders, and the public to support President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda by maintaining peace and unity.
Ohanenye emphasized that the desired progress and good governance can only be achieved in a peaceful environment, not through protests and chaos.
Asari Dokubo highlighted that President Tinubu should be given more time to address the country’s issues, noting that he is not a magician and needs the full four-year term to make meaningful changes.
The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), led by Comrade Lucky Emonefe, pledged not to participate in the planned protests if their mothers and women leaders are against it.
IduwiniVoice
PROTEST : OTUARO EXPRESSES HOPE IN FG; PLEADS WITH NIGERIANS TO SHUN PROTEST
Peaceful demonstrations to convey felt needs are rights enshrined in our nation’s constitution, which also highlights ways and means by which such rights and dissents are disposed.
But are protests and demonstrations necessary at the time our national ecosystem is recovering from a grievous pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the great depression? I profoundly, with all sense of responsibility, do not think so.
In the apparently challenging circumstances this nation finds itself as it tackles headlong the triggers left unattended to in its 25 years of democratic practices, you would agree with me, that it is only germane that the present structural reforms put in place by the federal government, together with its many cushioning interventions are just the only way to get this nation out of the wood.
When the mandate to govern this nation was given to the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, you could recall he took it as a honor of a lifetime to serve in that capacity and immediately went to work to rebuild this county. We have as a result seen historic progress made in the area of clearing $16b about (18%) from the nations external debt, added $4b to the nations external reserves, cleared all forests backlogs owed to foreign airline operators, started the path to full local government autonomy to bring decision making closer to the people, the most essential victory of which was got at the Supreme Court, students loan to federal and state universities, and reliefs emergencies in liquidity and palliatives sent through the subnational governments in line with the federation principles.
Closing these yawning gaps together with the emergencies declared on oil and gas sectors where this government continues to bear the cost of variations in the unsteady fluctuations in the price of crude and its refined components, are critical to address balance of trade deficits, low manufacturing and production, producing to meet domestic demands, and decentralised aggregation and production network of small medium enterprises, which could mean the nation would earn forex and tax to pay back FG loans to meet capital and recurrent expenditures.
Given these strides and the almost visible signs of turning from the headwinds, I consider that the present attempt by the conveners of the August 1st protest to want to go ahead with their planned protest would be premature, counter productive, distractive and dissuasive
Let’s not lose sight of the fact that there are persons who when they look at Nigeria in its present path to economic recovery, what they see is carnage, despair and darkness. They spread fears and lies for profit and power. They daily pray that this government fail to justify their misplaced idiosyncrasies and the concomitant effect is the avoidable gaps where they take advantage of the short term difficulties to create artificial scarcity, price gouging, food and double digit inflation. They only seek to use our people to fund their plot having failed in previous successive attempt to destabilise the federal government.
There is the hope however that governmental interventions would slice through the double digit and food inflation and provide more abundant life for the teeming number of our citizenry.
Be that as it may, We can’t soon forget how previous unhealthy demonstrations were hijacked and used to perpetrate unrest, properties worth billions of naira were destroyed, prison breaks became normative and very dangerous criminals were let back into society who soon became rapists, car jackers, kidnappers and killers. They foist back on society the very issues the present protest hope to achieve.
It is in this regard that I use this medium, as the Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) to appeal to all ex-agitators not to be part of any protests, and not to allow themselves to be used to settle political scores or be used to unleash destruction of government infrastructure.
In closing, I remember the words of the third century Greek philosopher Sextus Empiricus who said, “The mills of God grinds slow, but they grind exceedingly sure.”
Taken from this, Let me say no radical surgery to remove a malignant tumor is pleasant ab initio, but once it is removed, it automatically impacts the quality of life of the index case.
This should provide a renewed source of hope for us as we look forward to a greater, bigger, and better Nigeria
Dr Otuaro, the Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme writes from Abuja