FG vs Education
+ INEC’s trouble with bogus voters, Buhari’s spending habits, FG's anti-sex education.
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Today’s newsletter is 2,060 words (approx. 7 mins read)
In this edition
INEC’s trouble with bogus voters
FG vs ASUU
Insecurity
Buhari’s bad spending habits
FG takes sex education out of school syllabus
Road to 2023
INEC is believed to have registered underage voters & bogus names
INEC is currently under heat over discrepancies in data across its voters’ register
The commission published the preliminary register of voters’ polling units for the 2023 elections on its website
The register was displayed so eligible voters can confirm their details and report ineligible voters who might have been captured
Following the register’s release, some Nigerians on social media have displayed snapshots of voters who appeared to have been registered multiple times or had no pictures
Checks by TheCable revealed multiple registrations in states like Adamawa, Borno and Yobe
Social media users have also reported cases of voters who seem to be underage, with seemingly falsified dates of birth
Speaking at the commission’s 2022 third quarterly meeting with political parties, Mahmood Yakubu, INEC’s chairman, said:
“At the end of the [CVR] exercise, 12,298,944 Nigerians successfully completed the registration as new voters. All along, we have repeatedly assured Nigerians that our process of cleaning up the register is robust,”
“After a rigorous cleaning-up of the data using the automated biometric identification system (ABIS), a total of 2,780,756 (22.6%) were identified as ineligible registrants and invalidated from the record, among them double/multiple registrants, underaged persons and outrightly fake registrations that fail to meet our business rules.”
“Consequently, the number of valid registrations (post-ABIS) is 9,518,188.”
Festus Okoye, INEC’s commissioner for information and voter education, said the essence of the preliminary voters’ register was for citizens to make claims, raise objections, and identify biodata errors.
However, Nigerians have continued to knock the commission for an “incomplete” clean-up and a slow response to the concerns raised
Meanwhile, Oluwole Uzi-Osaze, a former Director of Voter Education for INEC said they have no way to determine who is underage on Arise Television’s The Morning Show.
Security
Kebbi Immigration rescues Human Trafficking Victims
The Kebbi State Controller of Nigeria Immigration Service, Mrs. Rabi Bashir handed over five human trafficking victims to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).
The victims included 4 young women and one man
Bashir said the 4 girls were rescued when the border patrol team of the Immigration intercepted them at Yauir border post in a commercial bus coming from Ogun State to Sokoto.
Two of the victims were Fumilayo Olutusin from Ogun State and Enabele lydia from Delta State.
The girls said that they were going to Sokoto State to meet someone that will take them to Liberia
According to Bashir, the girls were going to Liberia to work as house helps but were suspected to be introduced into prostitution or organ harvest.
She then assured the NAPTIP would arrest and prosecute anyone found in such acts
Gunmen kill 9 family members in Plateau community
Gunmen attacked the Maikatako Community, in Bokkos LGA of Plateau, killing 9 members of one family and many others - Vanguard
DSP Alfred Alabo, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), of the Police Command in the state, confirmed the attack.
According to Alabo, the attack occurred on Tuesday. Abalo said some officers had been deployed to the community to ensure calm, and others are going after the assailants.
He admitted that the details of the attack are still sketchy.
Mr Mahanan Job, a resident of the community, told News Agency of Nigeria that so far the community members have found 18 dead bodies in a search and rescue they’re conducting.
He also said there is serious tension in the community, even with the presence of policemen and soldiers
Gunfight in Kaduna
Nigerian Army Troops on Sunday repelled an attack by dozens of terrorists in Kankomi, Chikun LGA, Kaduna. The troops killed 1 terrorist, but the others escaped and killed 3 people on the way - Blueprint
Kaduna state commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Mr Samuel Aruwan revealed that the crossfire ensued from attackers attempting to break into where the security agents were staying.
Aruwan said the army recovered one AK-47 rifle, 7 rounds of ammunition and 5 locally made grenades from the bandits. Sadly, while exploiting the terrorists’ escape route, the agents found the bodies of 3 people they had killed along the way.
Education
Minister Insists FG will not pay for services not rendered
ASUU is not having the FG’s decision to not pay for the 8 months the university teaching staff were on strike, but the FG is also not having it.
When reporters asked his opinion on ASUU’s insistence on holding a protest against the government’s decision to pay its members for the strike months, Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, stressed that the FG does not intend to pay for services that were not rendered.
He said;
“The strike has been called off and the government has paid what is due to them. I think that’s the position of the government; that it is not going to pay anyone for work not done. And they only did, I think, the number of days that they were paid.
After being told that the union was planning a work-free day, he said;
“Let’s wait till the work-free day comes, then I’ll find out the details and we’ll discuss. You can ask me then. But at the moment, I’m telling you, honestly, I do not know that there is a problem.”
FG planning to ban Sex Education
The FG directed the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) to delete sex education from the Basic Education Curriculum (BEC).
The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, announced this at the Ministerial Session of the 66th National Council on Education (NCE) meeting, in Abuja
He described Nigeria as a religious country where morals and values are taught in churches, mosques, and homes and so sex education should be left in the hands of parents and religious leaders, rather than teachers
He said;
“When my attention was drawn to the document, I called the Executive Secretary of NERDC and ask him why did I see this again, because immediately I saw this I called him and he assured me that he was going to act on it.”
Currently, questions are being asked for the rationale behind the movement as well as the suddenness of the change merely months to the end of the current administration.
Finance
Naira redesign exposes governors
EFCC disclosed that the number of governors being monitored by the commission for alleged money laundering has increased in light of the Naira redesign
EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa said this while speaking to reporters at the Presidential Villa in Abuja but refused to give a specific figure, saying he wouldn’t want to be misquoted
At the same time, the leader of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Southeast zone, Gidado Siddiki, appealed to CBN to extend the deadline for circulation of the redesigned notes by three months
He said;
“They can’t meet up with the timeframe given by the apex bank. The two weeks are not enough. Many of the herders do not have bank accounts; they keep and protect their money locally. We cannot fight or reverse the government’s policy. We are only appealing to CBN to extend the deadline by three months, to enable the leadership of Miyetti Allah reach out adequately to those living in out-of-telecommunication areas across states of the federation.”
FG says they disburse $700m Abacha loot to 1.9m vulnerable households in six years
FG says it has disbursed about $700 million from the repatriated Abacha looted funds to over 1.9 million poor households across the country in the last six years through the National Social Safety-Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO)
Acting National Coordinator of NASSCO, Kabir Abdullahi, disclosed this at the one-day dissemination meeting by the Centre for Health Education, Economic Rehabilitation and Social Security (CHEERS)
He noted that beneficiaries in about four states have not been paid for two years due to logistics reasons, whereby, the ICPC, on seeing a large volume of money, seized the fund, adding that the funds have now been retrieved and that payment in the affected states will commence in earnest - The Guardian
He further explained that NASSP project entails conditional and basic cash transfers to poor and vulnerable households, stressing beneficiaries of the basic cash transfer receive N5,000 every month, while those under the conditional cash transfer receive an additional N5000, making it N10,000 every two months.
According to him, the current register of the beneficiaries of conditional cash transfer has 1,940,000 households and is expected to reach two million by the end of the year
Note: 133 million Nigerians still live below the poverty line
The figure represents 63% of the population
In 2016, the World Bank rated Nigeria the poverty capital of the world, displacing India stating that four in every 10 Nigerians live below the poverty line of $1.9 per day.
A federal court in Lagos stopped FG from selling Nigeria Airways to Ethiopean Airways
A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos yesterday granted an interim order restraining the FG from selling the shares of Nigeria Air to Ethiopian Airlines.
The suit is marked FHC/L/CS/2159/2022 and filed by registered trustees of the Airline Operators in Nigeria, AON, Azman Air Services Limited, Air Peace Limited, Max Air Limited, United Nigeria Airline Company Limited, and Topbrass Aviation Limited, the plaintiffs
Nigeria Air, Ethiopian Airlines, Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, and Attorney General of the Federation, AGF Abubakar Malami are listed as defendants in the suit
Meanwhile, Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika insisted that he was not aware of any suit seeking to stop Nigeria Air operations.
Recall that last month, FG struck a deal with Ethiopean Airways to lease 3 planes from the country and in return, give Ethiopean Airways 49% of the shares
Soon after, local airlines sued FG for the potential threat to the industry that this deal would cause.
Reps Propose N200bn For Ecological Projects
The House of Representatives mandated its Committee on Appropriations to make provision of N200 billion for the Ecological Project Office in the Presidency for flood preparedness, mitigation, response, recovery and relief packages in the 2023 budget - Leadership
The House also urged the FG to immediately release N5 billion into the already created Special Ecological Fund Account of each of the 36 states and FCT to mitigate the effect of the recent flooding that ravaged the country
The House, however, enjoined the executive arm of government to submit a supplementary budget of N100 billion or more for the Ecological Project Office- as an intervention fund for mitigation, recovery and relief programmes across the country
The House made the resolutions while adopting a motion of urgent national importance moved by Henry Nwawuba and Ibrahim Isiaka on the “need for strategic planning to prevent the reoccurrence of flood and erosion disasters in Nigeria in 2023 and beyond.”
President Buhari catching one of his last ‘medical travel’ cruise
President Buhari returned to the country on Sunday night, marking his 10th medical return trips from London, and 237 days of either treating or checking undisclosed ailments abroad in the last seven years, despite his pledge to cut presidential costs.
Guardian NG estimates that showed that the trips cost between N1.1 billion to N5.4 billion in sundry operational costs, including fuel, landing and parking charges, a contrary observation to Buhari’s pre-2015 promises to cut the running cost of presidential jets
The timeline of his travels since presidential appointment are:
February 5, 2016: Six days of vacation
June 6, 2016: Treating an ear infection lasting 13 days
January 19, 2017: 10-day vacation in the United Kingdom that lasted for 51 days
May 8, 2017: Medical attention until August 19, 2017, spending 104 days
September 21, 2017: Three or 4-day detour from the U.S. to the UK on medical grounds
May 8, 2018: Medical attention for four days where he spent another four days
March 2021: 15 days, having “routine medical check-up.”
July 2021: Education summit to medical treatment, lasting 14 days
March 6, 2022: Two-week medical trip, which lasted 12 days
He just arrived from another 14 days ‘medical’ excursion in the UK
On each of the visits and vacations, he was accompanied by the Nigerian Air Force 001 (NAF 001)
To power, the jet on a six-hour travel-time to London requires approximately 42,000 litres of fuel
At the rate of N700/litre, each return trip cost N58.8 million; a collective N588 million in over 10 trips.
Other news
Buhari has sacked the Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps, Brigadier-General Mohammed Fadah- The Punch
Authorities of Federal College of Education, Okene, Kogi State and Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) are at loggerheads over power supply, especially a faulty 2.5MVA transformer that has resulted in a 42-day outage - The Guardian
Amnesty International has condemned the sentencing of two TikTok stars for allegedly defaming the governor of Kano state in northern Nigeria - Africa News