EDUPEDIA247

Literary giant and elder statesman, Prof Niyi Osundare, has lambasted President Muhammadu Buhari’s approach to the ongoing herdsmen’s violence across the country, saying his handling of the matter is “amateurish, pedestrian and dangerously incompetent.” Osundare asked Buhari how he was ”trifling away the crisis in Aso Rock while the Nigeria house is burning” while urging him to say something and do something.  The elder statesman disclosed this in an open letter to the President on Friday, titled, “Nigeria and the cow problem: Another letter to President Buhari.” Osundare said, “This letter, my second to you in five months, will begin with a very, very absurd question: Mr. President, will Nigeria drift into another civil war under your watch simply because the ‘Giant of Africa’ does not know how to manage its cows? Yes, absurd: for, absurdity is the faithful cohort of the grotesque and irrational, the conspicuously invisible and falsely true. No war has ever taken place w...

Convener of Concerned Nigerians Group, Deji Adeyanju, has said immediate past Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, and other service chiefs will answer for ‘their crimes against humanity and the genocidal acts they committed.’ The group had in January petitioned the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged human rights violations and crimes against humanity by the Army during Buratai’s tenure. In the petition, the group had asked the ICC to investigate, arrest and prosecute Buratai to serve as a deterrent to others who have made it a point of duty to indiscriminately abuse citizens’ human rights in the country. But President Muhammadu Buhari had nominated him alongside other immediate past service chiefs as non-career ambassadors. “President Muhammadu Buhari has forwarded the names of the immediate past Service Chiefs to the Senate as non-career Ambassadors-Designate,” presidential aide, Bashir Ahmad, had disclosed in a tweet. However, in an interview with SaharaRepor...

Olawale Okunniyi, National Secretary of Project Nigeria Movement, a platform for leaders of thought and elder statesmen/women in Nigeria, has described the death of the first civilian governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande, as a monumental loss to his family and the entire people of Nigeria. Jakande died on Thursday at the age of 91 in his Lagos residence. The deceased was a journalist, an administrator and a politician who served as the governor of Lagos State between 1979 and 1983. Okunniyi in a statement on Friday said Nigeria had lost one of its exemplary political leaders and administrators. Okunniyi, a former member of the Presidential Committee on Constitution Reforms headed by former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, while bemoaning the exit of Jakande, said he was privileged to have worked with the late elder statesman.  “I was first privileged to work closely with Baba Kekere, (as Alhaji Lateef Jakande, the first civilian governor of Lagos State wa...

In what appears to be an attempt to forestall another round of protests in Lagos, armed police officers were on Friday spotted at the Lekki toll gate. Speaking with SaharaReporters, a source, who works in Lekki confirmed the heavy presence of police at the toll plaza. Also, a tweet by the Lagos State Police Command II (rrslagos767) on Friday, said it had deployed operatives to the toll gate, Ikoyi, Jakande Roundabout, and Eti Osa areas of the state, led by the head of the Rapid Response Squad, Yinka Egbeyemi.  The RRS shared pictures from the exercise on Twitter, stating that the show of force was done to deter crime as well as boost the morale of the officers in the areas. The tweet read, “CSP Yinka Egbeyemi is presently leading a team of police officers on a show of force to Lekki Toll Gate (Admiralty Plaza) Obalende, Ikoyi, Jakande Roundabout, and other areas in Eti Osa as part of efforts to deter crime as well as boost the morale of his officers in the areas.”  ...

Two new generation banks, Access and Guaranty Trust, have started closing accounts of persons and entities doing cryptocurrency transactions within their systems, SaharaReporters has gathered. The CBN had on February 5 directed banks to close the accounts of those involved in cryptocurrency transactions in their systems. In an email received by an Access Bank customer and seen by SaharaReporters on Friday, the bank said it reviewed the customer’s account activities and “observed that transactions therein have been linked to cryptocurrency trading.” The bank advised the affected customer to visit any of its branches around to request for a draft of their account balance.  The email read, “Due to the unregulated nature of Cryptocurrency trading and the further directive from the CBN, we are unable to serve as your organisation’s financial partner going forward. “We have therefore proceeded on the closure of your account and a draft will be issued to you for the equivale...

In Nigeria, corruption and political thuggery reach everywhere even into the remotest villages. Lagos as the commercial city of Nigeria is home to  organized corruption and political thuggery.  Tagged “Occupy Lagos Lekki Tollgate,” the #RevolutionNow plans to protest at Lekki tollgate tomorrow, Saturday, February 13 against the reopening of the tollgate. The protesters are demanding justice for the Lekki victims mowed down by the Nigerian army during the #EndSARS protest.  Tomorrow, two sides will size each other up at Lekki tollgate. On one side is #RevolutionNow fighting for justice for those that were killed in the October 20 Lekki massacre. And on the other, is a ragtag counter group “Defend Lagos” sponsored by Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Sanwo Olu, and M.C. Oluomo, Tinubu’s chief thug, as the group’s commander. With these two groups starring each other down, the Tinubu group will turn a peaceful protest into a political thuggery clash.   Tinubu thrives on poli...

Niyi Osundare Dear President Buhari,     This letter, my second to you in five months, will begin with a very, very absurd question: Mr. President, will Nigeria drift into another civil war under your watch simply because the ‘Giant of Africa’ does not know how to manage its cows? Yes, absurd: for, absurdity is the faithful cohort of the grotesque and irrational, the conspicuously invisible and falsely true. No war has ever taken place without a potent dose of the absurd in itsmix of causes. No calamity has ever happened without a touch of the irrational. The distance between travesty and tragedy is perilously short. This is why History’s capacious house is replete with the skeletons of nations which went to war, after leaving their brains behind.     Mr. President, the country over which you preside is burning in all its flanks: kidnapping ...

Dr Nasir Aminu No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which large part of the population is poor and miserable. – Adam Smith  The 2007 Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) has been kind to all government tiers by allowing them to borrow cheap money as long as markets are happy to provide, subject to legislative approval. The Act provided Kaduna state with the opportunityto agree a record $350 million loan from the World Bank to finance part of el-Rufai’s development plan. The loan’s twointerest rates, 3.7% for $216 million and 2.2% for $134 million were low enough to satisfy the FRA condition. The National Assembly rejected the initial loan application in 2017. All three senators from Kaduna state refused to support the r...

Yinka Odumakin The Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation has slammed Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, for justifying the use of AK-47s by herders across the country. The governor had on Monday faulted the quit notice given to Fulani herders in some areas in southern states, particularly Ondo, pointing out that the actions of the region’s governors were wrong. Yinka Odumakin SaharaReporters Media He said people from other parts of the country live in the North and none of them was given eviction order. He had also justified the use of AK-47s by Fulani herdsmen, arguing that they carry such for self-defence because cattle rustlers are attacking them.  Mohammed had said: “On the herders-farmers’ clashes, you have seen what our colleagues in the South-West are doing and some of them in the South-East. Some of us told them with all modesty and humility – you are wrong. “We have Yoruba people in Bauchi for over 150 years, even before the birth of Nigeria. Nobody has ...