Akpabio, 9 ministers join Buhari to China!

PRESIDENT BUHARI DEPARTS FOR CHINA TO ATTEND FOCAC, DISCUSS INFRASTRUCTURE FINANCING WITH PRESIDENT JINPING

President Buhari and his Chineses counterpart XI Jinping, inspecting a guard of honour in China

President Muhammadu Buhari has on Friday Friday departed for China to participate in the 7th Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) scheduled to hold September 3 - 4, 2018 in Beijing.

The President’s first engagement in Beijing will be an interactive session with the Nigerian Community in China at the Nigerian Embassy.

Before the formal opening of the FOCAC Summit, President Buhari in his capacity as current Chair of ECOWAS, is expected to deliver remarks at the High-Level Dialogue between Chinese and African leaders, business representatives and African entrepreneurs.

The Nigerian President is scheduled to join President Jinping and other African leaders for the opening and roundtable sessions of the 2018 FOCAC Beijing Summit under the theme: “Towards an even Stronger China-Africa Community with a shared Future.”

After the FOCAC Summit, President Buhari will hold bilateral meetings with President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Keqiang to discuss infrastructure financing for strategic projects in Nigeria and the upgrading of Nigeria-China relations “from strategic partnership to comprehensive strategic partnership.”

The President will also use the occasion of his audience with the Chinese leadership to assess the progress made so far in Chinese interventions in Nigeria’s key priority infrastructure projects, particularly on-going projects in the railway and power sectors.

It is noteworthy that since the last FOCAC VI Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa in December 2015 – the first attended by the Nigerian leader – and his successful State visit to China in April 2016, the current administration has pushed forward practical cooperation with China in the areas of infrastructure construction, trade, investments, finance, power, agriculture, education cooperation, among others.

It would be recalled that President Buhari has consistently acknowledged Chinese support for infrastructure development in Nigeria.

In January 2018 while receiving the Board of Directors of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group, the President had said:

‘‘We send our gratitude to the Chinese for all their support to Nigeria. Since independence, no country has helped our country on infrastructural development like the Chinese. In some projects, the Chinese help us with 85 percent payment, and soft loans that span 20 years. No country has done that for us.’’

President Buhari will be accompanied to Beijing by his wife, Aisha, who is scheduled to participate in a Spouses’ Programme on China-Africa at the Great Hall of the People, under the theme, ‘‘Joining Hands for a Future of AIDS.’’

Also on the President’s entourage are Governors Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar, Akinwunmi Ambode, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar and Rochas Anayo Okorocha of Bauchi, Lagos, Jigawa and Imo States respectively.

Others are Senators Abdullahi Adamu, George Akume, Godswill Akpabio and Aliyu Wamakko representing Nasarawa, Benue, Akwa Ibom and Sokoto States respectively.

Also accompanying the President are: the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi; Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola; Minister of FCT, Muhammad Bello; Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah; Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma; Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu; Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, and Minister of State, Aviation, Hadi Sirika.

Others are the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno; the Director General, National Intelligence Agency, Ahmed Abubakar; and the Group Managing Director, NNPC, Maikanti Baru.

GARBA SHEHU
Senior Special Assistant to the President
(Media & Publicity)
August 30, 2018

Gov. Udom's Dead on Arrival Projects

By SYLVESTER INYANG

There is intense uproar about this issue in Akwa Ibom state, and it is becoming very contemplating in many circles.

The variables emanating from Governor Udom’s phantom projects are seemingly becoming the talk in town, and expediently need to be looked in to. In retrospect, what are the verifiable truths about Udom Emmanuel's nine industries for which he is substituting bold-face lies? Can we adjudge the following without being biased or judgmental?

Armoured Vehicle Assembly Plant in Itam

This has been DOA, dead on arrival. Misguided, misconceived, it has not gone beyond groundbreaking.

LED Lighting Factory in Itam

Equally misguided and misconceived. Equally is the DOA on ground-breaking.

Peacock Paints

Taking late Dr Clement Isong's achievement in vain, the purported revival of this iconic industry by Udom Emmanuel has been an excuse to plunder public funds. The so-called revival has not matched either in volume or range of output, what was achieved over *30 years ago. Even at that, the products are not in the market where even if it were, it would be competing, unfavourably we should add, with the output of over 300 local producers. A whole state government should do better but under Udom, it hasn't.

Toothpicks and Pencils Factory The less said about this disgraceful effort the better. Or perhaps more should be said to expose the abysmal incompetence of Udom Emmanuel. Fraudulently conceived and poorly executed, this factory is typical of Udom's so-called industrial development programme. Inappropriate equipment was ordered without a thought to where it would be housed. On arrival, a warehouse was hurriedly borrowed without a proper lease agreement. The factory was commissioned and allegedly put into use only to be shut within a few months. Some 24 months later, the government is desultorily trying to put up a building for it in Itam. No prize for guessing: a failed project without any product in the market.

Syringe Factory

A mum and pop operation; probably a money laundering scheme, by Udom Emmanuel's Turkish business partners. For all the noise, this is a plastics company, pure and simple. Imported moulds are used to blow plastic resins for the plastic parts of the syringe. The hypodermic needles are imported and packaged for sale at higher than import prices. Even the packaging is brought in from out of state. Zero local content, limited employment generation. It is not doing well and may soon pack up shop.

Electricity Meter Factory

This nothing to do with Udom Emmanuel, as Godswill Akpabio set the stage for this investment by buying into Port Harcourt Distribution Company, during the privatisation of DISCOs. Owned by the operators of PHDC, the electricity distributors, this is an assembly operation, pure and simple. Not one component is manufactured in Nigeria. This is precisely the sort of industries we had before under our import substituting industrial programme in the 60s, 70s and 80s, that failed woefully. No self respecting leader should be advertising this sort of operation as an achievement. But that is Udom Emmanuel for you. Clueless.

Tomato Industry

A farm or industry, nobody can say. If a farm, it will be a high cost one, given the kind of sums we have heard bandied about as the cost of the imported green houses, imported equipment and imported experts. If the products are in the market, only Udom's cook is using them. As for industrial processing, we'll believe that when we see them in operation. We can hazard the view now that the present green house operation will not produce enough to feed an economic-sized plant. If in doubt, ask Dangote. As for the much-ballyhooed AKEES, tomatoes business, well, nobody is talking about the millionaires allegedly created by that exercise in public deception, alternative facts or no.

Rice Mill

A scam, as reported by Dr Dele Sobowale in a widely circulated on-the-spot assessment a few weeks back.

*9. Fertiliser Blending Plant in Abak* The biggest alternative fact of all. And that is saying something. A packaging operation commissioned and passed off as a blending one. At the cost of $5million in bank guarantee that exposes all of us in Akwa Ibom. Besides,Udom Emmanuel didn't facilitate that investment, Godswill Akpabio did.

Coconut Oil Processing

Misplaced, misguided and misconceived. Nothing exposes the quality of thinking and vision that undergirds Udom Emmanuel's government than this misadventure. And as if to prove it, the coconut plants have stubbornly refused to grow.

Mexican Cattle Ranch in Uruan

Another stop in Udom Emmanuel's reenactment of Don Quixote's tilt at windmills mistaken for heathen enemies. Again, more evidence of thoughtlessness.

Unlike Udom Emmanuel, Akwa Ibom people live in the real world of his nonperformance. They pay the price, a very high price, for living in that world. They need a governor that comes from the world of reality; the reality of poverty and joblessness, a governor who will relief them of these real burdens by building real industries, by creating real conditions for the people to flourish. Udom Emmanuel and his world of alternative facts must be done away with and the deadline for doing so is but a few months away.

Akwa Ibom Latest: How APC post-congress leadership tussle ends

The leadership tussle that arose after the State Congress of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State has ended.

The tussle ended on Saturday with members of the former APC state executive led by Dr Effiong Etok, the former state secretary and two former senatorial chairmen, Obong Kufre Inyangette and Obong Uko Umoh announcing the withdrawal of their court case against the APC state chairman, Hon Ini Okopido and other members of his executive.

Dr Effiong Etok, the former state secretary spoke on behalf of the former executive and said they refused to join Dr Udoma Ekarika, the man they supported to be state chairman, when he defected to PDP on Monday because of their love for APC and intervention of former Governor Godswill Akpabio.

"We have to move forward,"  Etok said.

Chief Don Etiebet, the Chairman of APC state caucus thanked Dr Etok and other members of the old executive for allowing peace to reign.

"We have all sank our differences. All the leaders of the party have resolved to work together. Whatever were our misgivings, we believe what God said that you must love your neighbour as you love yourself. We are forgiving ourselves and we are working together for one purpose. This is the new APC moving forward."

Senator Godswill Akpabio also thanked the members of the former executive for agreeing to withdraw their court case against the state congress that produced the present executive.


The former Senate Minority Leader said he intervened in the case because he did not want the party to be bogged down by legal tussle as it prepared for the 2019 elections.

Senator Akpabio thanked Obong Nsima Ekere, the Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), for strongly backing and enabling the reconciliation process.

Below are more pictures of the event

By Emmanuel Silas
Promoted by The Streetjournal

MY THOUGHTS ON THE INCESSANT ATTACKS ON THE MEDIA BY THE EXECUTIVES BY: DR. KAYODE AJULO

Journalism, the Fourth Estate of the Realm and the society's watchdog, is a profession that has paid its dues in nation building and that continues to play the inevitable surveillance function so that  the country for which generations of men and women have laboured to build would not go on its knees.

There is no telling the sacrifices the  practitioners of this noble profession have  made in the evolution of the this country, right from the time of struggle for self government, through the dark ages of the military rule to the dawn of democracy. 

However, one would expect that this group of persons who have given talents, bodies and blood to see their country attain democracy would now be better placed to enthrone civility and good governance for the benefit of all. But the sad reality is that the opposite is the case.

Instead of being positioned to enhance development and good governance, the profession is going through another round of repression in the hands of crude political leaders. 

There have been repeated reports of cases of abuse, harassment, assault, arrest and jailing of journalists in the different parts of the country. The ugly tide has risen to a level where concerned citizens must markedly intervene.

The business of journalism, one must say now requires utmost caution. Journalists now have to be on guard, members of the pen profession have to put their houses in order on a daily basis as they do not know who is next to be picked up, locked up or even incarcerated by politicians who hate to see themselves in the mirror. I must in any case state that this present situation of the Media in Nigeria is a breach of the laws upholding our Constitutional Democracy.

Nigeria like every other nation of the world has laws regulating its affairs and these laws ought to be respected and complied with by Agencies of Government in carrying out their activities. Unfortunately, just like in banana republic, it appears that the Nigerian government has no regard for the rights of Citizens as enshrined in the Constitution. 

The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) being the grundnorm has stated in its Section 39 that;
(1) “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impact ideas and information without interference.”

In the recent past, there was the case of Samuel Ogundipe, a Premium Times reporter who was apprehended by the Police. The news of the arrest and account freezing of Mr. Samuel Ogundipe is an appalling narrative in a democratic dispensation. Samuel Ogundipe in the exercise of his duty as a journalist reported news appertaining to the invasion of the National Assembly by the officers and men of the State Security Services and insisted on maintaining the confidentiality of his source in accordance with Article 4 of the Code of Ethics for Nigerian Journalist which is made pursuant to Section 9 of the Nigerian Press Council Act (CAP N128 LFN 2004). Having accused him of many unfounded allegations, the officers of the Nigerian police proceeded to arrest him.

The usual trend, until recently, was to arrest a journalist and freed  him or her after few days of arrest then the arraignment of certain unlawful charges. The new turn of regular harassments as exampled by Samuel Ogundipe is unlawful, uncivilised and totally unacceptable. This is condemnable in the strongest of terms as an unreasonable and barbaric act on part of the Nigerian Police.

Trying to muzzle Mr. Samuel Ogundipe whose only offence was being a journalist is a drama taken too far. And the sadder part is the silence of persons who are supposed to rein in on these anomalies. It is now so precarious that we don’t know who will be picked next.

The demolition of the Radio house (Fresh FM) of the renowned musician, Yinka Ayefele is another obvious attack on the media. The Oyo State Government had claimed that the building contravened shoutate laws, even if it did, due process was not followed. What could have been done was either to fine him or withdraw his License. 
I
The demolition of the building is an unfair act stifled at frustrating the Media. The fact  that the matter was already in court is enough to make the government apply breaks, respect the status quo and not to tamper with the building irrespective of whether there was a Court injunction or not. Yet the building was demolished in a manner that tells of the reign of anarchists.

The discerning is very persuaded that the spate of attacks on the media is a politically calculated ploy to either manipulate, tilt or cow the Media in favour of the ruling class in the imminent 2019 elections. Other similar occurrences lend clear credence. The Channels TV was fined 5 million in the month of July 2018 for refusing to be the propaganda machine of the government against National Assembly. 

A host of other Media platforms are going through either suspension, fine or lock down in a democratic regime.  

As things stand, it appears we are having a repeat of the effect of Decree No 4 of 1984 where Nigerians could not voice out their opinions and beliefs.  

With the way things are within the polity, journalists can no longer do their jobs without fear of arrest and incarceration, where it ought to be given a free hand and accorded their right according to Section 39 of the Constitution as stated above.

I am particularly worried that this is a deliberate fettering of the Media who is the eyes of the citizenry. It is now happening at a rate that can no longer be tolerated. We cannot afford to fold arms and watch our hard earned democracy being fragrantly desecrated by autocratic men of governments by attacking the Media unjustifiably. It is condemnable and strange in a democratic regime. All well meaning citizens must rise up against this.

- Dr. Kayode Ajulo, 
Castle of Law, Abuja.