Nigeria

Political Islam: Nigeria’s de facto head of state dies of Covid-19

20/04/2020

The powerful chief of staff to Nigerian leader Muhammadu Buhari has died after contracting the novel coronavirus, the presidency said Saturday.

In a statement, the Nigerian presidential office said it “regrets to announce the passage” of Abba Kyari, who acted as gatekeeper to the leader of Africa’s most populous nation.

“The deceased had tested positive to the ravaging Covid-19, and had been receiving treatment. But he died on Friday, April 17, 2020,” the statement said.

In a series of tweets announcing Kyari’s death, Buhari paid tribute “to my friend Mallam Abba Kyari”, using the West African honorific “mallam” for a wise man learned in Koranic studies.

“In political life, Abba never sought elective office for himself. Rather, he set himself against the view and conduct of two generations of Nigeria’s political establishment – who saw corruption as an entitlement and its practice a byproduct of possessing political office,” noted the Nigerian president in one of his tweets.

Buhari, whose public pronouncements are rare, himself has undisclosed medical ailments and spent five months in London for treatments in 2017. Kyari’s death might leave a potential opening for a rethink of policy at the heart of government in Africa’s most populous state.

Powerful figure leaves vacuum in national policy circles

Kyari, whose exact age has never been officially confirmed but who was believed to be in his seventies, is the highest-profile person in Nigeria to be killed by a virus that has caused 493 confirmed infections in the country and 17 deaths.

He travelled to Germany in early March with a delegation of other Nigerian officials for meetings. Upon his return, Kyari meetings with senior government officials before he was diagnosed as having contracted coronavirus.

Kyari was buried in Abuja on Saturday in the presence of his family and close friends wearing traditional dress, as well as masks.

The influential technocrat, who was reported to have suffered from underlying health issues, was seen as one of the dominant figures in the tight-knit group of advisors around Buhari.

He reportedly controlled access to the president, a 77-year old former military ruler now in his second term as democratically elected leader, overseeing key meetings and granting ministers audiences.

“His death will have an enormous impact,” a European diplomatic source told AFP on Saturday.

“He really was a strong force who had a key influence. Without him, there will be a vacuum for a while. Political decision-making will perhaps be a little slower,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

‘De facto head of government’

The Nigerian newspaper, Daily Trust, wrote in a leader column that “his closeness to the president and Buhari’s unshakable trust in him saw Kyari become the de facto head of government, especially since the president handed him a free reign”.

That led to accusations “that he had the president in a golden cage”, the newspaper said.

Kyari’s death could be very significant because he showed “an immense ability to wield power in the context of a largely absent president”, Clement Nwankwo, director of the Abuja-based Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre think-tank, told Reuters.

“There is no evidence that the chief of staff shared that power with anyone. He was totally trusted and it isn’t clear who could fill those shoes,” said Nwankwo.

Nigeria vulnerable to diease

In a statement released on March 29 following his return from Germany, Kyari said he had been transferred to Nigeria’s biggest city Lagos for private medical treatment and hoped “to be back at my desk very soon”.

There has been no official confirmation on whether Buhari has taken a test, but the president has since made repeated televised speeches imposing restrictions to curb the spread the virus.

The central government has imposed a lockdown on Nigeria’s economic hub Lagos and capital Abuja, while state governors have ordered a raft of measures in other regions.

Experts say the country of 200 million is highly vulnerable to the spread of the disease given its weak healthcare system and high population density.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)

Why Nigeria Has Responded to Trump’s Travel Ban With Caution, Not Outrage

15/02/2020

The Trump administration provoked another international outcry when it announced late last month that it was adding six new countries to its list of nations that face broad travel restrictions to the United States: Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania. The expansion of the travel ban, which President Donald Trump first issued as an executive order just days after his inauguration in January 2017, will take effect on Feb. 22.

The inclusion of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and its largest economy, generated immediate outrage among many observers. But the reaction from the Nigerian government was more muted than expected. While Eritrea’s foreign minister, for example, said the ban was “unacceptable,” his Nigerian counterpart merely said he was “disappointed.” Nigerian authorities may be calculating that a soft touch with the Trump administration will prove more effective in getting the travel ban lifted than a defiant display of disapproval.

Stressing his desire for “productive relations” with the U.S., President Muhammadu Buhari said Nigeria would address the security issues that the Trump administration claimed as justification for the new travel restrictions. Last week, Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama led a Nigerian delegation to Washington for a meeting of the U.S.-Nigeria Binational Commission, which the State Department bills as “the premiere platform of engagement” to expand cooperation between the U.S. and Nigeria. After meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Onyeama told reporters that Nigeria was “somewhat blindsided” by the travel ban announcement. But he added that it was “very gratifying” to speak with Pompeo directly “and to understand more clearly the reasoning.” Neither Buhari nor Onyeama seemed to want to add to the tensions generated by the travel ban.

The Trump administration’s justification—that Nigeria is not adequately sharing public safety-related information with U.S. authorities, and that it “presents a high risk, relative to other countries in the world, of terrorist travel to the United States”—is dubious. Certainly, the violent jihadist group Boko Haram is an abiding menace in Nigeria, but it shows virtually no sign of trying to reach or threaten the U.S. Washington has been providing military assistance to Nigeria to fight Boko Haram for years, so U.S. officials have a clear picture of the security situation in the country and the reality of Boko Haram’s capabilities.

Nigeria has other problems to contend with, most of all widespread poverty and corruption. But from what is publicly known about Trump’s thinking on Nigeria, it is not unreasonable to suspect this decision was made with something else in mind: prejudice. Alongside his infamous comment about “shithole countries” in Africa and the Caribbean, Trump reportedly complained in a June 2017 Oval Office meeting that 40,000 Nigerians had received U.S. visas that year and that they would not “go back to their huts.”

Nigeria also has the fifth-largest Muslim population in the world. So it is hard to escape the conclusion that the administration’s decision to restrict travelers from Nigeria is not about stated security concerns, but instead about Trump’s original justification for the travel ban: his campaign call to bar all Muslims from entering the U.S.

Nigerian authorities may be calculating that a soft touch with the Trump administration will prove more effective in getting the travel ban lifted than a defiant display of disapproval.

However it is justified by the administration, barring Nigerians from traveling to the U.S. will be counterproductive. Nigeria may be associated in many Americans’ minds with terrorists kidnapping young girls and internet scammers posing as temporarily inconvenienced princes, yet the Nigerian diaspora in the U.S. is actually much more educated than the American population as a whole. A 2015 study found that of the estimated 376,000 Nigerian immigrants in the U.S., 29 percent had an advanced degree, compared with 11 percent of the general population.

Then there is the demographic, economic and political weight of Nigeria itself. With nearly 200 million people and a GDP of almost $400 billion—the highest in Africa on both measures—Nigeria’s global importance is undeniable. Its population, which is set to double by 2050, may well overtake that of the U.S. sometime this century. Nigeria would seem to be an indispensable partner and even peer of America.

The most likely effect of the travel ban for Nigerians will be to impose a huge set of burdens on families. The ban will also have an economic impact, potentially disrupting the more than $6 billion in remittances that flow from the U.S. to Nigeria each year and obstructing numerous other forms of commerce and economic exchange. To make matters worse for Nigerians, the ban, which covers immigrant visas, comes on top of existing, de facto restrictions on their travel to the U.S. Nigeria had one of the highest denial rates of any country for short-term, non-immigrant U.S. visas in 2018, and last year the Trump administration raised fees for Nigerians’ visa applications.

Why, then, has the Nigerian government reacted with conciliation rather than condemnation? One reason may be that the Buhari administration is keen to preserve cooperation with the U.S. on other fronts. During his visit to Washington last week, Onyeama signed an agreement to facilitate the return of $308 million in frozen Nigerian assets, money that was initially stashed in American banks by former military dictator Sani Abacha, who ruled Nigeria from 1993 to 1998. Buhari’s efforts to recover stolen assets from overseas has been one of his administration’s highest priorities and arguably the most successful initiative of his presidency.

Nigerian officials may also be betting that a patient and methodical approach to its relations with the Trump administration will pay off. There is no exact precedent for Nigeria’s inclusion in the travel ban, but a rough analogue could be the system of “enhanced screening” that was imposed on travelers to the U.S. after the failed Christmas Day bombing of 2009, in which al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula recruited a 23-year-old Nigerian man to detonate an explosive device hidden in his underwear on a flight to Detroit. The plot failed, and while the U.S. government subsequently mandated additional security protocols for travelers from Nigeria and 13 other countries, those measures lasted for only four months, from January until April 2010. The Buhari administration may calculate that the current measures are similarly just a passing storm, especially with Pompeo stating he is “optimistic” that Nigeria will take the steps deemed necessary by the Trump administration to get itself off the travel ban. Nigeria has ample reason to think that Washington is fickle—and that the Trump administration is particularly so—and all it has to do now is make a show of compliance.

In a more practical sense, Nigeria’s muted response to the travel ban listing may simply reflect the government’s lack of bandwidth. Throughout his presidency, Buhari has confronted a range of sometimes distinct and sometimes interlocking challenges. They currently include not only longstanding problems like poverty and insecurity, but now the threat of the Wuhan coronavirus spreading to Nigeria—something Buhari appears to take quite seriously even though no cases have yet been confirmed there. Policymakers in Abuja likely feel that this is the wrong time to be dragged into a war of words with Washington.

Culled from World Politics Review

Why Buhari should intervene in ongoing genocide in Southern Cameroon

17/09/2019

President Muhammadu Buhari and the Federal Government have been told not to stay aloof and watch the alleged ongoing genocide in the English speaking part of Cameron. Already about 35,000 people from Southern Cameroon are said to be taking refuge in Cross River State which shares boundary with Cameroon. This is as a Community leader from Southern Cameroun who lives in the United States, Edwin Ngang, said that the political elite from the Southern Cameroun have been cowed by the government of the country.

A group of people under the aegis of Nigerian Ambazonian Sovereignty Recognition Society, NASORES, explained that Cameron had been encroaching on the Nigerian territory in Boki axis of Cross River State after taking over Bakassi Peninsula. National Director of NOSORES, Hon. Cletus Obun said that timely intervention of President Buhari would be of tremendous relieve to Nigeria that is sorrounded by Franco-phone countries.

Obun, who was a former member of Cross River State House of Assembly representing Boki State Constituency said, “The targeted aim of shrinking the Nigerian territory is too painful and must not be allowed. “We will not stand aloof and watch people who are much in our image be maltreated, dehumnised and annihilated.” He called on the Federal Government “to campaign for the permanent solution to the problems of the indigenous minority English- speaking peoples of Cameroun by calling for an exclusive referendum on the choices of restoring their independence as Ambazonians or staying as Camerounians.

“To campaign for an “international peace-keeping force” to enforce NASORES’ call for an immediate cessation of hostilities between the Cameroun armed forces and the Amba fighters. “To plead that the Federal Government of Nigeria return to playing its natural role of peace making through conflict preemption and prevention not only in the Gulf of Guinea region; where its own immediate security is being threatened but in the rest of Africa by invoking the principle of territoriality. “To encourage Nigeria that now braced by this sacred jurisprudence of the principle of territoriality that is acknowledged Byau constitutive charter article 4(b), and by “the threat to peace” clause in United Nations charter article 51 and by its global commitment in the 2005 UN “responsibility to protect” (r2p), a unilateral intervention by the federal government will be the right thing to do since it will stop the ongoing war and its accompanying targeted genocide of the English-speaking peoples of Cameroun.”

He recalled with dismay the judgment that ceded Bakassi to Cameroon, adding,”we considered the known and surreptitious politics surrounding the so-called World Court judgment on Bakassi Peninsular and the consequent Green Tree Agreement. Neither Nigeria nor the people of Ambazonia find solace in this.” Continuing, he said, “I am sure that you are aware of the socio-political and economic storm raging over Southern Cameroun. Peaceful demonstrations demanding for a free and independent State have been met by repressive reprisals.

“Now, the government of President Paul Biya in Northern Cameroun has, in the bid to asphyxiate the bourgeoning demand for the Republic of Ambazonia, a part successor to the “Federal United Cameroon Republics, resorted to mass arrest, annihilation of perceived champions of the struggle, pogroms in small enclaves, graduated to full scale genocide since 2017 against the patient, oppressed and deprived people of Ambazonia. “To the uninformed, this blood-strewn canvass for sovereignty appears distant, faint and inconsequential. But to any Nigerian patriot and for anyone with inbuilt sensors to see beyond today, the conflict in South Cameroun should naturally grip attention, arrest focus and prick conscience. “It is even more pragmatic for Nigeria and Nigerians to look not only with a sense of human sympathy at the trails of the Ambazonian people but must search again with filial-feeling drawing on the sense of nostalgia, as to how things were, before we arrived at the current separateness occasioned by pencils drawn over cardboard sheets by the colonial authorities and the regrettable misfortune that was the February 11, 1961 so-called referendum.

“The time has come to call on the international community to discard the blanket of silence woven over Southern Cameroun while the region is on a wild loop of fire. It is time to speak up and let the various treaties, convention and accords binding on the member-countries of the United Nations begin to take their cause. “And we count that Nigerian authorities take this great and honourable leap not just as the giant of Africa but a direct beneficiary of a peaceful and quickest resolution of the conflict.

“This could be seen in the refugee burden that Nigerian is bearing and the peace initiatives she will be forced into, if the Ambazonia war independence flies to heights unimagined. We recall what Nigeria lost in men and material to the conflicts in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Congo now in Burkina Faso, and elsewhere in the world “Historically, the people being beaten, maimed and killed by the government of Cameroun were once affiliates of Nigeria. These were citizens of the British-administered Cameroun. They had representatives at the Eastern Nigeria House of Assembly and parliamentarians from there were among the best you could anywhere in the world at that time.

“Through the manipulation of an uninformed elite and the lukewarm attitude of some Nigerian leaders at that time, this key territory was allowed to slip off the radar of Nigeria. By a small margin, the British-administered Cameroun voted to merge with other parts of Cameroun. “That political marriage has not worked. The north has been and continues to constitute a wobbling cog in the progressive ambition of Southern Cameroun. What the departure of British-administered simply meant that Nigeria was stripped of any neighbor with a cultural and linguistic similarity.

“You are aware that our nation is surrounded by Francophone nations, who sometimes even conspire against issues of security and trans-global diplomacy. While Ambazonia can no longer be a full part of Nigeria as it was in the past, the possibility having a closer ally in aspects of economy, diplomacy, cultural ties and reliable proximity to one looking after the other, is too titillating to be ignored. “Any effort in the direction goes to fulfill the dreams of nationalists like Chief Obafemi Awolowo who saw a possibility in Nigeria flaunting her strength across West Africa not only in the way she settles conflicts but also in extension of her economic and cultural propensities to her immediate neighbours. Let me say the formation of Nigerian- Ambazonian Sovereignty Recognition Society, is preceded by the creation of a similar organization through what has now been internationally dubbed the Calabar Declaration.

“The “Ambazonian Liberation Movement” (ALIM) of Nigeria is a brainchild of the indigenous people of Nigeria of the Bakassi extraction and who continue to draw sympathy from a large spectrum across the Nigerian society. It is needless to stress how, Nigerians who hassled, chassed and pushed out of the ancestral homes following the ill-fated judgment which ceded wholesome Nigerian territory to Cameroun. “Many of our kindred are in refugee camps, other are roofless, in squalor and with no sense of dignifying living because the government of Cameroun regards and treats them as adversaries or intruders. ” This is a major determinant in our decision to take up the gauntlet and plead with our countrymen and women to see the war in Southern Cameroun as ours to win through Diplomacy of Necessity while discarding the lies fueled through the tunnels of deceit, cover-up and crass intimidation.”

Also briefing Edwin Ngang said: ”It is terrible and so sad that these wounds have resurfaced, but I fear it was always going to be thus with the exclusion of the English-speaking minority from the affairs of state. ”The only practical solution, from a distance, is a political settlement with either a United Nations or African Union peace-keeping contingent being placed on the ground to enable an immediate cessation of violence, ensuring a humanitarian protective intervention and a cooling- off period to create the conditions to allow an equitable settlement to be hammered out. “Building on lessons learned, autonomy but not separation in a close-knit federation is the formula for lasting peace and should be embraced as a solution. ”We have to admit the real and/or perceived denial of justice to a people is what creates radicals from moderates. This is because is its denial HOPE at the same time bringing hopelessness- all of these the breeding ground of extremism. “Another instance of hesitation that ended up as denial of justice to Ambazonians in Viscount waverley’s floor speech is when he invoked the sanctity and primacy of the rule of the law.”

www.vanguardngr.com

Consortium of Nigeria Crime Syndicates: President Buhari remains Petroleum minister

22/08/2019

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has formally inaugurated his new cabinet following a successful re-election earlier this year.

The event took place at the presidency in Abuja where 43 ministers – substantive and ministers of state, took their oaths. According to the list, President Buhari maintained his position as Petroleum Minister, a post he has held since 2015.

A number of appointees from the last cabinet maintained their portfolios among others, Chris Ngige (Labour and Employment), Geoffrey Onyeama (Foreign Affairs), Babatunde Raji Fashola (Works and Housing) and Abubakar Malami (Minister of Justice).

The Nigerian Senate vetted and passed all nominees and passed all of them for appointment. Senators postponed their annual recess for a week to screen the nominees. Out of the 43 appointees, seven of them were women.

The female appointees and their respective portfolios are as follows:

Sharon Ikeazor – Anambra, Environment, State
Amb Maryam Katagum – Bauchi, Industry, Trade and Investment, State
Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed – Kaduna, Finance, Budget and National Planning
Ramatu Tijani Aliyu – Kogi, FCT, State
Gbemisola Saraki – Kwara, Transportation, State
Sadiya Umar Faruk – Zamfara, Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development
Dame Pauline Tallen – Plateau, Women Affairs

Buhari was re-elected in March but Nigeria has been without a cabinet since the ministers serving during his first term stepped down in May.

The gap led to a slowdown in investment and a near-halt in decision making, according to investors, contractors and diplomats. Buhari took about six months to form a cabinet at the start of his first term in 2015

Complete list of appointees:

1) Dr. Uchechukwu Ogah – Abia, Mines and Steel Development, State
2) Muhammed Musa Bello – Adamawa, FCT
3) Sen. Godswill Obot Akpabio – Akwa Ibom, Niger Delta
4) Chris Ngige – Anambra, Labour & Employment
5) Sharon Ikeazor – Anambra, Environment, State
6) Adamu Adamu – Bauchi, Education
7) Amb Maryam Katagum – Bauchi, Industry, Trade and Investment, State
8) Timipre Silva – Bayelsa, Petroleum, State
9) Sen. George Akume – Benue, Special Duties
10) Mustapha Baba Shehuri – Borno, Agriculture, State
11) Godwin Jedi-Agba – Cross River, Power, State
12) Festus Keyamo – Delta, Niger Delta, State
13) Ogbonnaya Onu – Ebonyi, Science and Technology
14) Dr. Osagie Ehanire – Edo, Health
15) Clement Ikanade Agba – Edo, Budget and National Planning, State
16) Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo – Ekiti, Industry, Trade and Investment
17) Geoffrey Onyeama – Enugu, Foreign Affairs
18)Dr. Ali Isa Pantami – Gombe, Communication
19) Emeka Nwajuba – Imo, Education, State
20) Suleiman Adamu – Jigawa, Water Resources
21) Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed – Kaduna, Finance, Budget and National Planning
22) Dr. Mohammad Mahmoud – Kaduna, Environment
23) Mohammed Sabo Nanono – Kano, Agriculture
24) Maj. Gen. Bashir Magashi (rtd) – Kano, Defence
25) Hadi Sirika – Katsina, Aviation
26) Abubakar Malami – Kebbi, HAGF and Minister of Justice
27) Ramatu Tijani Aliyu – Kogi, FCT, State
28) Lai Mohammed – Kwara, Information and Culture
29) Gbemisola Saraki – Kwara, Transportation, State
30) Babatunde Raji Fashola – Lagos, Works and Housing
31) Adeleke Mamora – Lagos, Health, State
32) Mohammed A. Abdullahi – Nasarawa, Science & Tech, State
33) Amb. Zubairu Dada – Niger, Foreign Affairs, State
34) Olamilekan Adegbite – Ogun, Mines & Steel Devpt
35) Sen. Omotayo Alasuadura – Ondo, Labour, State
36) Rauf Aregbesola – Osun, Interior
37) Sunday Dare – Oyo, Youth and Sports
38) Dame Pauline Tallen – Plateau, Women Affairs
39) Rotimi Amaechi – Rivers, Transportation
40) Mohammed Maigari Dangyadi – Sokoto, Police Affairs
41) Engr. Sale Mamman – Taraba, Power
42) Abubakar D. Aliyu – Yobe, Works and Housing, State
43) Sadiya Umar Faruk – Zamfara, Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development
Source: Africa News

Nigeria: Seven women make Buhari’s ministerial list of 43 nominees

23/07/2019

Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday officially transmitted a list of ministerial nominees to the Senate for vetting and further confirmation.

The move is part of efforts aimed at forming a new cabinet for the second term of the Buhari – Osinbajo administration. In all 43 names were forwarded to the Senate.

The Senate President Ahmad Lawan confirmed receipt of the list and announced that lawmakers had postponed their annual recess for a week to enable them screen the nominees.

Out of the over 40 names submitted, seven were women. Amongst them, the immediate past Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmad (Kaduna) and sister of the immediate past Senate president, Gbami Saraki (Kwara).

The remaining five profiled by local media portal Cable Nigeria were: Pauline Tallen,a one-time Minister under Olusegun Obasanjo and the first female deputy-governor in the northern region.

Mariam Katagum, a former Nigerian ambassador and permanent delegate to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Sadiya Farouq,a former national treasurer for Buhari’s party, the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC. Completing the list are Sharon Ikeazor and Ramatu Tijjani, ex-civil servants and big shots in the ruling All Peoples Congress, APC.

The practice under Nigeria’s federal arrangement is for the president to nominate ministers from across the thirty-six states.

Former Governors Rauf Aregbesola (Osun) George Akume (Benue) Timipre Sylva (Bayelsa), Adeniyi Adebayo (Ekiti) made the list. Some of the retained ministers from the first term included: Babatunde Fashola, Rotimi Amaechi, Ogbonnaya Onu, Adamu Adamu (Bauchi), Senator Chris Ngige (Anambra).

Some of the newcomers are Senator Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Sunday Dare (Oyo), Festus Keyamo (Delta), Sharon Ikeazor (Anambra), Senator Tayo Alasoadura (Ondo) and Olorunnibe Mamora (Lagos), Sadiya Farouk (Zamfara).

Buhari was re-elected four months ago, but Nigeria has been without a cabinet since the ministers serving during his first term stepped down in May.

The gap has led to a slowdown in investment and a near-halt in decision making, according to investors, contractors and diplomats. Buhari took about six months to form a cabinet at the start of his first term in 2015.

Source: Africa News

Nigeria’s Abubakar files legal challenge to presidential vote result

19/03/2019

The beaten candidate in last month’s Nigerian presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, on Monday lodged a legal challenge to the official result, his lawyer said.

Muhammadu Buhari, 76, was re-elected president after a delayed poll that angered voters and raised political temperatures, but the opposition immediately vowed to challenge the “sham” result.

It was the second victory at the ballot box for Buhari, a one-time military ruler who was first elected in 2015 to lead Africa’s most-populous nation and top oil producer.

He secured 56 percent of the vote against 41 percent for Abubakar, a winning margin of 3.9 million votes, according to the official results.

Abubakar, the 72-year-old candidate for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has now followed through with his promise to challenge the results, his lawyer Emmanuel Enoidem told reporters.

The PDP “asked that our candidate who won the election massively across the country be declared the winner of that election,” he said.

Failing that, the court in Abuja was asked to set aside the election results “on the grounds of irregularities which were very apparent across the country,” he added.

Enoidem said that 400 witnesses were ready to appear before the presiding judges.

The legal challenge was lodged just a day before the three-week deadline for such cases.

The court now has 180 days to pronounce on the case which could then be appealed to the supreme court.

Abubakar’s official inauguration is scheduled for May 29.

Last month’s vote was marred by violence, including 53 deaths, according to election observers.

Some reported vote-buying, intimidation and violence towards voters and officials, which have been a problem in previous polls in Nigeria.

At 35 percent across the country, low voter turnout was blamed on a combination of apathy because of the one-week delay, organisational problems and unrest.

EU and local observers spoke of “serious problems”.

The election offered a marked contrast between the austere former general Buhari, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), against former vice-president and millionaire businessman Abubakar, who proposed to free up the economy.

(AFP)

Nigeria: Buhari declared election winner

27/02/2019

Nigerian voters reelected Muhammadu Buhari to serve a second and final term in office as president of Africa’s most populous nation and its biggest economy.

Buhari beat a former ally and ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar in a vote that was seen as a close contest in the run up to the February 23 vote.

At the end of the process, however, it turned out that Buhari’s support for a final term was big and wide. He beat Atiku by close to four million votes to emerge winner.

He becomes only the second man to achieve the feat of securing two straight terms. The first president was Olusegun Obasanjo who won two terms (1999 – 2007).

The other two presidents post-1999 were Umar Musa Yar’Adua who died in office and Goodluck Jonathan who won 2011 vote but failed to secure reelection in 2015.

Here are 10 key points about the former military ruler turned democratic president:

1 – Buhari was born in 1942 in the town of Daura located in Nigeria’s northwestern Katsina State.
2 – His first role in governance was as Governor of the then Northeastern Region of Nigeria between 1975 – 1976)
3 – He served as military ruler between 1983 – 1985 after overthrowing the government of Shehu Shagari.
4 – He retired from the army in 1985 at the rank of Major General. In the runup to 2015 he was referred to as GMB – General Muhammadu Buhari, that changed to PMB – President Muhammadu Buhari.
5 – He became the first opposition candidate under the current constitution to win the presidency after he beat Goodluck Jonathan to win the 2015 polls.
6 – In 1976, Buhari also served as Federal Commissioner for Petroleum and Natural Resources under military ruler General Olusegun Obasanjo. He served as Minister of Petroleum all through his first term as president.
7 – Buhari was overthrown in a counter coup by General Ibrahim Babangida and was detained in Benin City till his release in 1988.
8 – He contested three times unsuccessfully in three votes prior to 2015. Lost in 2003 to Obasanjo, 2007 to Umaru Yar Adua and 2011 to Goodluck Jonathan.
9 – In 2015, Buhari was elected flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress, APC, a mega party that was formed to challenge the then Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The PDP had governed Nigeria since 1999.
10 – Buhari is married to Aisha Buhari, his wife since 1989. She is officially referred to as ‘wife of the president,’ after Buhari abolished the ‘Office of First Lady,’ soon after coming into office.

President Buhari has long been held in high regard as someone who is not corrupt and who is committed to fighting the scourge, an endemic evil that is eating away at Nigeria.

“Leave a naira (Nigerian currency) in a room with Buhari, you will still find it on the table when you return,” said Bola Tinubu, the national leader of the ruling APC, in defence of Buhari’s integrity in the runup to the elections.

Africa News

Nigeria: Election ‘too close to call’ as contenders tussle

25/02/2019

Official results from the Presidential and National Assembly elections across Nigeria, announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has started coming in from different wards and Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the country, with most Nigerians anxiously waiting to know who is winning.

Naija News reports that INEC commenced the Presidential and National Assembly elections at exactly 8 am on Saturday, February 23, amidst tight security. Nigerians voted from a list of seventy-two (72) Presidential candidates and 6,584 National Assembly candidates.

Ninety-one (91) political parties are participating in the 2019 general elections, however, some would not be fielding candidate for the position of the president, while others endorsed candidates of the PDP and APC. According to the figures recently released by INEC, there are currently 84,004,084 registered voters compared to 67,422,005 in the 2015 elections.

In the build-up to the elections, Incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nigeria’s ruling party and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Nigeria’s main opposition party, have popped up clearly as top contenders for the office of the president.

We understand that Atiku is winning in some part of the country. Buhari is winning also in some places where elections took place. Cameroon Concord News Group will publish the official Presidential and National Assembly election results as announced by INEC, the only body recognised by law to declare election result in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Nigeria votes: Lagos polling center rocked by violent disruption

24/02/2019

Of all places, the commercial capital of Lagos has been hit by electoral violence according to reports by local portals and eye-witnesses. The incident took place at Okota, Oshodi/Isolo Local Government Area, LGA, a video posted on Twitter showed people running away from a polling units as live rounds were being discharged.

Voting materials at a polling unit was also seen being burnt after a scattered center. Security has always been top of the agenda during the campaign and a serious concern during the polls. Authorities assured that enough security had been deployed to quell any incidents of especially ballot snatching and other forms of infraction.

President Buhari had earlier this week stressed that the security forces had been given full orders to shoot at any person or group of persons who attempted to snatch ballot boxes. The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, called him out for the orders saying he had given “shoot to kill” orders only because he aimed to subvert the will of the people using intimidation.

Buhari’s caution was issued at a meeting of the national caucus of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in the capital, Abuja.

“I do not expect anybody to make any disturbance. I have briefed the law enforcement agencies and the military, they have identified hot spots, flash points, they should be prepared to move.

“I really gave the military and police order to be ruthless… Anybody who thinks he has enough influence in his locality to lead a body of thugs to snatch ballot boxes or disturbs the voting system, will do so at the expense of his own life.

“We are not going to be blamed that we want to rig elections. I want Nigerians to be respected, let them vote whoever they want across the parties.”

Buhari’s comments was met with a swift riposte from the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Whiles they accused Buhari of giving shoot to kill orders, pro-government activists insist that he was only speaking in the language that ballot snatchers understand.

Africa News

Nigeria, in Last Day of Campaigning, Warned to ‘Choose Wisely’

22/02/2019

Nigeria surged into the final day of campaigning ahead of Saturday’s election, as President Muhammadu Buhari made one last pitch to stay in office while top challenger Atiku Abubakar shouted to supporters: “Oh my God! Let them go! Let them go!”

A day after the candidates pledged before diplomats, election observers and the nation to contribute to a peaceful vote in Africa’s most populous country, the scene in Abubakar’s home state of Adamawa on Thursday was raucous, with supporters echoing some of the dire warnings his party continues to issue.

“Buhari wants to kill us,” said Abubakar supporter, Mohamed Abubakar, as others rallied in the dusty streets and clung to moving vehicles in one last show of force. “We need change!”

FILE PHOTO: A man sits next to a campaign poster of Atiku Abubakar, leader of the People's Democratic Party, days before the presidential election in Kano, Nigeria, Feb. 17, 2019. — FILE PHOTO: A man sits next to a campaign poster of Atiku Abubakar, leader of the People’s Democratic Party, days before the presidential election in Kano, Nigeria, Feb. 17, 2019.

Abubakar’s party also charged that Nigeria’s election commission has kept more than 1 million ghost voters on the national register, again raising fears of vote rigging.

“A sick narrative has emerged, one of systemic and systematic rigging, manipulation of the true record of the voters’ register,” party chairman Uche Secondus told a news conference in the capital, Abuja.

He also alleged “a coordinated approach to register foreigners” as voters. A commission spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.

Close contest expected

Such talk threatens to raise the temperature in what is seen as a close contest between Abubakar, a former vice president, and Buhari, a former military dictator who took office again in 2015 while calling himself a reformed democrat. “I have to do things differently,” he tweeted on Thursday, noting his “young and rather ruthless” past.

Buhari ruled the country from 1983 to 1985.

While the 2015 election was one of the most peaceful in Nigeria’s history, others have been marred by deadly violence along religious and regional lines in the country of more than 190 million people.

Buhari, like Abubakar a Muslim from the north, made a call for calm in a final televised address to the nation ahead of the vote.

The president vowed “safety and full protection” for foreign election observers, diplomats and others. His government has been under pressure over recent comments criticizing so-called foreign interference, including a comment by one governor of sending people home in body bags.

Buhari urged Nigerians not to let differences “drive us to desperation” and made a special plea to the booming youth population, hurt especially by widespread unemployment, to not let themselves be used for violence.

‘Choose wisely’

Nigeria’s more than 84 million registered voters now must choose between Abubakar, who pledges to wrest certain powers away from the federal government but is dogged by corruption allegations, and Buhari, who talks up agriculture and infrastructure but faces criticism for his performance on security and the economy.

The president’s address dismissed what Nigerians call “stomach infrastructure,” the handouts of rice and other basics for a cheap win while failing to deliver on substantial promises of change.

“Choose wisely,” Buhari warned.

Fear of violence

In the northern city of Kano, not far from Buhari’s home state of Katsina, some of his supporters appeared almost serene in contrast to the street chaos on Abubakar’s last day of campaigning.

“He is not that kind of person who believes in do-or-die elections. He is a free man with a good heart,” said one Buhari supporter, Abdulaziz Maidubji.

He dismissed the idea that violence might follow if the president is defeated.

“Nothing will happen in the north,” he said. “We are people of faith.”

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