Atiku’s Ex-aide, Daniel Bwala To Become Tinubu’s New Spokesperson

Without any last minute changes, an ex-aide of PDP Presidential candidate, Abubakar Atiku, in the person of Daniel Bwala will be announced as the new spokesperson of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. This is coming barely a week after Ajuri Ngalale went on an indefinite leave of absence due to ‘family health issues’ which indicated either a resignation or dismissal from his job as the President’s spokesperson. According to sources privy to this information, President Tinubu will announce the appointment of Daniel Bwala in the next one or two weeks after he returns to Nigeria. Although Daniel Bwala worked with PDP in the last election, he has since switched camp to the All Progressive Congress and has been seen with President Tinubu in Nigeria and overseas. The source made it known that Bwala’s job for Atiku was an agreement that was bound to expire after the court case. Recall that Bwala was with All Progressive Congress (APC) before he joined PDP during the election campaign period. Meanwhile, many are of the opinion that Bayo Onanuga would be the best fit for the position since he has been actively working in that capacity. Although Bayo Onanuga would not be a bad option for Tinubu, considering the fact that he has been close to be president for decades and has successfully operated PM News as a media company but the source revealed that President Tinubu isn’t interested in having Onanuga occupy the vacant position of his spokesperson because he is Yoruba. It is worthy of note that President Tinubu has been accused of neglecting other tribes in his appointment apart from people who are Yorubas just like him. This is the reason Bayo Onanuga would not be selected to fill the position of a spokesperson. According to the source, the appointment is a done-deal for Daniel Bwala as agreement has been made between the President and the former PDP chieftain. It was revealed that in a situation where Bwala doesn’t eventually become the spokesperson, he will be duly compensated with a higher position.

FINGERPRINTS By UGO ONUOHA

‘Where-ever law ends, tyranny begins,…’   Captured hereunder are some thoughts of the British philosopher and political theorist John Locke in his enduring treatises in the 17th century. He wrote about the form of his world and power relations going back to almost 1000 years ago. Though he was a genius, he would still have been shocked, if he was to be alive today, to observe how his analysis about 800 years ago appears to still apply to many African countries including Nigeria. He was not a prophet in the classical understanding of that word. He was certainly not another Nostradamus who was said to have correctly predicted events that would happen centuries after his death. But Locke’s demonstration of future – thinking, for lack of any better description, was legendary.   The Online Library of Liberty (OLL) in an entry about two years ago said of Locke: “Where-ever law ends, tyranny begins”. The thoughts continue by explaining that ‘The equality of all citizens under the law is a linch-pin of the modern notion of the rule of law in a democratic state. A revolutionary implication of this idea, well appreciated by Locke in the tumultuous 1680s, is that even rulers and their magistrates were also under the “sovereignty of the law”. Locke concludes that when any member of the state exceeds his legal authority or in any way violates the law, he ceases” to be a magistrate; and, acting without authority, may be opposed, as any other man, who by force invades the right of another’. Has Nigeria under the All Progressives Congress (APC) since 2015 not been ticking the boxes of descent to tyranny? “Not quite! Here’s a glimpse into the set up for 2027. Those who may dare to contest for the presidency will start with almost insurmountable handicaps. As we said the police chief will be Yoruba. The chief of army staff, Yoruba. Head of the secret police, Yoruba. The director – general of the national intelligence agency, Yoruba. Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Yoruba; customs comptroller-general, Yoruba; immigration, Yoruba; central bank governor, Yoruba, just to mention a few.”   There was a viral post on WhatsApp recently which appeared to warn readers to worry about any society or country where any citizen who exposes crime is himself treated as a criminal. The post said that any country where that is the case, then the country can conveniently be said to be fully under State Capture. Yet, another recent viral WhatsApp message said something to the effect that nobody captures power and uses it for public good. Does that ring a bell? Does it not represent our unfolding reality?   The process towards the capture of the Nigerian state by rogue rulers and their accomplices may have started since the beginning of this republic 25 years ago. But as it has become obvious today, the people who were at the helm of affairs earlier were benign rulers. In 2006, the eve of his term limit, the then president, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, was alleged to be plotting to rig the Nigerian constitution so as to remain in office beyond 2007. He has repeatedly and vehemently denied the allegation. But his henchman who was deputy senate president, the late Ibrahim Mantu, confirmed the existence of the plot while he was alive. He should know because he was the chairman of the constitution amendment committee in 2006. He told Premium Times newspaper in 2016, years before he died in 2021, that he would have laid down his life for Obasanjo to continue as president if he knew that the country would be so badly governed. At the time Mantu was interviewed, the All Progressives Congress (APC’s) Muhammadu Buhari was in power. And at that time Nigeria was not half as bad as it is today. We will leave it to the imagination what Mantu would have said were he to still be alive.   Buhari was an affliction on Nigeria. He was the person who led those who have turned out to be barbarians to seize power in 2015 through a democratic insurgency. But the preceding statement gives too much credit to Buhari. It has since been doubly confirmed that the man from Daura is incapable of doing anything well except for nepotism and sectarianism. He is a rabid Islamist. In 2014/2015, Buhari could be likened to an Igbo saying of imanye aka nwata na-oku (jar) ka ndi ozo nwe efe busasia ihe di n’ime oku. It will be a struggle to find an English language equivalent for the foregoing. So let me try an explanation. A group of adults convinces a child to take cookies from the jar at home. Then they would subsequently capitalise on that to empty the jar. When the woman of the house or head of the household returns, the adults would claim that it was the child that took and ate the cookies. You probably have conspired with others to do something like this in your past life.   “In the wake of what Nigerians are now experiencing in terms of impunity, Buhari, despite being a former general in the army, could be classified as an apprentice or wannabe tyrant. Under Tinubu the gloves are off. He is the head of the executive arm of government, and the de facto head of the national legislature. There’s no evidence that he has purloined the judiciary, suspicions notwithstanding.”   Buhari was a failed military ruler between December 1983 – August 1985 when he was ousted by his colleagues in a palace coup. He failed again under the regime of the former head of state, the late Gen. Sani Abacha, who appointed him to head the defunct petroleum trust fund (PTF). That agency under Buhari was turned into a cesspit of fraud and corruption. Projects funded by the agency, which was created to equitably use proceeds from the removal of petrol subsidy for infrastructural development in all parts of the country, was disproportionately cited in

Presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale steps down

Like a flash, the tour of duty of mediaman, Ajuri Ngelale, President Tinubu’s spokesperson has come to an abrupt end as the Bayelsa born journalsit stepped down from his role with immediate effect this saturday.. In a statement issued by the Presidency on Saturday, Ngelale said he had submitted a memo to the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, informing him of his plan to proceed on indefinite leave. Ngelale added that he has stepped down as the Special Presidential Envoy on Climate Action and Chairman of the Presidential Steering Committee on Project Evergreen. According to Ngelale, he stepped down from his role to deal with medical matters presently affecting his nuclear family. The statement read, “On Friday, I submitted a memo to the Chief of Staff to the President informing my office that I am proceeding on an indefinite leave of absence to frontally deal with medical matters presently affecting my immediate nuclear family. “While I fully appreciate that the ship of state waits for no man, this agonizing decision — entailing a pause of my functions as the Special Adviser to the President on Media & Publicity and Official Spokesperson of the President, Special Presidential Envoy on Climate Action, and Chairman, Presidential Steering Committee on Project Evergreen — was taken after significant consultations with my family over the past several days as a vexatious medical situation has worsened at home. “I look forward to returning to full-time national service when time, healing, and fate permit. I respectfully ask for some privacy for my family and me during this time.”

Public Outcry: Lawmakers demand immediate reversal to old petrol pump price

The House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) has called on the Federal Government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd. (NNPCL) to reverse the recent hike in petrol prices. The committee’s chairman, Rep. Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, described the increase as “unacceptable” and urged immediate action to alleviate the burden on Nigerians. “We urge the Federal Government and, of course, the NNPCL to consider the plight of Nigerians and suspend this recent increase in pump price,” Doguwa said in a statement. The committee highlighted the difficulties faced by citizens and criticised private companies for exploiting system gaps to generate profits at the expense of the populace. Doguwa stressed the need for a return to the old petrol price and encouraged broader stakeholder engagement to address the issue. Doguwa, who also chairs the Special Committee on Crude Oil Theft and Vandalisation, outlined plans to collaborate with security agencies to curb oil theft, which threatens the nation’s fuel supply. “A return to the old pump price will calm frayed nerves, enabling Nigerians to go about their daily activities with ease,” he added. He advised Nigerians to support President Bola Tinubu’s administration as it seeks to revitalise the oil and gas sector, including the ongoing efforts to rehabilitate the Warri and Port Harcourt refineries.

Oil is Indeed the Devil’s excrement: It’s Stench Is Choking Up Nigeria

A new Nigeria needs cooperation of all and sundry -Tinubu

Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo, the prominent Venezuelan politician and one of the founders of OPEC, in the early 70s called petroleum “the devil’s excrement” that always brings trouble—waste, corruption, consumption: our public services falling apart and debt. How I wish he could wake up from his grave to see the devastation of his native land, Venezuela my homeland, Nigeria, he would shake his head in shock how apt and in fact understated his prediction was. The stench of oil, specifically, the high price of one of its refined products, petrol, is literally threatening to choke the life out of my ancestral homeland, Nigeria. It has set the country’s social media on fire and threatening to do same to the regime of the newly elected President Tinubu, who removed the corruption-infected oil subsidy scam. The data below which is making the round on social media compares the selling price for PMS (petrol) across different countries apparently to justify the price hike. Assuming that one can even verify the reliability of this data (there are different grades of PMS in the U.S. for instance, and prices vary from state to state and in fact from one station to another on the same street. Due to local regulation and standards, in Carlifonia petrol can cost twice as what obtains in Texas. The data shows that PMS price in the US is about twice what we pay in Nigeria. However while the proposed minimum wage in Nigeria is equivalent to $43.75 a month at the current exchange rate of Naira 1600 to a dollar, the minimum wage in the U.S. which also varies from state to state is $7.25 per hour for federal minimum wage for covered nonexempt employees. In Carlifonia the minimum hourly wage hovers around $16. The bottom line is, comparing PMS prices across nations is a meaningless venture. In many of these countries unlike Nigeria, the public transport infrastructure is so advanced that many people don’t even drive. With our poor public transport network, the ridiculously low wage in our economy, and our over-dependence on fossil fuel dependent road transportation to move commodities across the nation, the price of PMS is unsustainably high. It is a drag on our economy and a major driver of our high inflation. Our challenge is that we can’t work our way out of the high price of PMS with the corruption-ridden oil subsidy scam. We have got to increase our refinery capacity. While Dangote coming on stream is a great first step, we cannot depend on another monopoly for the supply of arguably the most critical factor in our economy, petrol and diesel. By the way as Dangote himself has proclaimed publicly, the refinery wouldn’t have happened without the visionary leadership of Tinubu, himself an oil man having worked in the industry before. We need to give the man Tinubu some credit. Solving our petrol problem would not be easy nor quick, but we must have some faith in and give this 15 months old presidency time to work through it. Although, the uninformed has been howling about NNPC acquisition of a major petrol distribution company two years ago, with NNPC poised to be the main distributor for Dangote petrol, this all is making some sense now. The petrol marketers are a powerful cartel which is adept at price manipulation and price gouging. Have you noticed the almost coordinated rolling sale of PMS by different petrol stations in your neighbourhood? Most of them close shop when PMS is available in NNPC stations. With NNPC acquiring more petrol stations and with its exclusive right to Dangote petrol, there is a distinct possibility to finally break the back of the oil marketer cartel. However, more refineries need to come on-stream to address the supply-demand-price equilibrium conundrum in the Nigeria petrol supply chain. This coupled with massive investment in public transport infrastructure especially rail line and solution to our energy infrastructure, our power generation and distribution infrastructure, the prospect for economic revitalization of our country should improve substantially. However, all of these prospect goes down the tube if we throw the baby out with the bath water out of frustration. If we allow those vested and entrenched interest who have fed fat on our dysfunction andwho wish our country no good to decapitate the Tinubu presidency and our hard earned albeit imperfect and frankly frustrating democracy. Ww cannot allow people to fly the Russian flag again as a form of protest in our country. We must understand that there can be no gain without pain. We didn’t get to this economic Armageddon in one day and it will take time, pain and sacrifice to dig our way out. We the grown-up who enjoyed the bounties of petrol-dollars in the 70s and who contributed in one way or another to our country’s perilous condition, should complain and whine less and make one last sacrifice to bequeath to our children, grand children and future generation, a country they can at least have an opportunity to salvage. We have made a mess of our country. We have put our parochial tribal interest above the mission of building a strong virile nation. We have complained about corruption until it is our countryman who is caught or it is our turn to dip our hands in the treasury and we end up doing worse than the people we once condemned. We can heap the blame for global warming and every other problem that confronts our country on Tinubu’s 15-month regime all we want. It won’t solve our problem. Neither him nor anyone possess the magic wand to solve all the problems that have been built up through decades of misgovernance and corruption. He is not to blame for all the governors mismanaging the huge revenue allocations they are now getting. He is not responsible for the price gouging by the market women and the corruption that has become endemic in the Nigerian moral fabric. Our problems are multidimensional, multigenerational, of both poor