Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has called on the Security Chiefs to resign in order to allow the generation of fresh ideas and strategies in tackling the threats to internal security in the country.

Gabriel Olonisakin, Chief of Defence Staff; Tukur Buratai, Chief of Army Staff; Sadique Abubakar, Chief of Air Staff, and Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, Chief of Naval Staff, are all overdue for retirement.

Despite public calls for their sacking, President Muhammadu Buhari has kept them in office.

Speaking during the wreath-laying and parade ceremony to mark the 2021 Armed Forces Remembrance Day in Port Harcourt on Friday, Wike said Boko Haram terrorists, bandits, and killer herdsmen have continued to overrun communities, randomly killing and abducting helpless people

He added that the insurgents had also destroyed private and public property with relative ease, and that it was time for the Nigerian government to take decisive action and put an end to the problem.

The governor said, “A country is as strong as its Armed Forces. Her inability to defeat the Boko Haram insurgency despite years of full military engagement shows that all is not well with our approaches and commitments to the battle against internal insecurity.

“Today, therefore, also raises the need for all of us to be worried by the deteriorating security situation across the country and restate the call on the Federal Government to do everything necessary to bring the security threat by Boko Haram and armed bandits to a decisive end in the shortest time possible.

“We thank the Service Chiefs for their efforts so far in the battle against the insurgents. But we also align with the concern of citizens that having seemingly reached their wits’ end, they should now give way for fresh hands and ideas to give the fight the impetus that it so strongly needs to ensure that Boko Haram and killer bandits are comprehensively defeated and smoked out of existence.

“The time has come for the Federal Government to stop the pretence, change strategy, seek help from our friends and confront the urgency of the internal insecurity situation in Nigeria with every weaponry at its disposal to stop the killing, free all hostages and improve the physical security of our country for all Nigerians.” (thenigerialawyer)

By O. G. Chukkol

Under Nigerian jurisprudence, husband and wife have the right to jointly own a property. This has aptly been argued and, to my mind, been laid to rest by Prof. Sylvester Udemezue (UDEMS) in his article titled: “There Is No Law In Nigeria That Bars Husband & Wife From Buying Or Selling Land Together Or From Joint Ownership Of Property” accessible at https://thenigerialawyer.com/there-is-no-law-in-nigeria-that-bars-husband-wife-from-buying-or-selling-land-together-or-from-joint-ownership-of-property/

Ordinarily, a couple is to purchase, own or sell property as ”Mr. Adamu Obi and Mrs. Funke Obi (husband & wife).” But what if they purchase or sell property as ”Mr. and Mrs. Adamu Obi” (husband & wife)? Would so doing render a contract of property sale or purchase void and therefore unenforceable?

Mr. Olajide Akinola in his article accessible at https://www.facebook.com/100030633634673/posts/447323566298761/?app=fbl was not specific on it. He just said is not permissible. Prof. UDEMS was also of the same view because, according to him,  ”Mr. and Mrs. Adamu Obi” is not a juristic personality.

JURISTIC PERSONALITY OF  ”MR. AND MRS. ADAMU OBI”

There maybe no need to argue this because the position on it has long been settled. In the case of Lion of Africa Insurance Company Ltd. v Esan (1999) 8 NWLR (Pt.614) 197 at 201, the issue before the court was: “Whether or not the plaintiffs suing as Mr. & Mrs. E.A. Esan constitute a legal personality of body corporate known to law and have the right to sue in the said name.”

The Court of Appeal answered in the negative and held as follows:

“In this case the plaintiffs are Mr. & Mrs Esan husband and wife. I agree with the submission of the Appellants’ counsel that the term ‘Mr. & Mrs.’ is a social expression and not a conferment of legal capacity. The term ‘MRS.’ has been described in WEBSTER’S Dictionary of the English Language as-

‘A courtesy title for any married woman not styled ‘Lady’ DR etc. used before her name or her husband’s name.’

” The same WEBSTER’S Dictionary has defined the term ‘MR.’ as a courtesy title for any male adult not styled ‘SIR’. DR etc. A form of address to the holder of any of certain offices e.g. Mr. Chairman.

“Mr & Mrs. Combined do not create a legal term us such to confer upon MR. & MRS ESAN a legal right and capacity to sue and be sued. It is true Mr. & Mrs. Esan in this case are one in their marital status in the church and by social expression, but in legal parlance they are two separate people and either of them can sue or be sued in his or her own name. If there must be two plaintiffs the two different names must be specifically stated and not joined together as Mr. & Mrs. ‘Mr. & Mrs. Esan is not a juristic person capable of suing and of being sued eo nomine.

“I do not find it difficult to uphold this appeal and rule that the action is incompetent in its present format. No law expressly or impliedly confers the right to sue or be sued on Mr. & Mrs. but Mr. Or Mrs. has the right to sue and be sued.”

In his concurring judgment, PATS-ACHOLONU, J.C.A. held that:

“The terms ‘Mr’ and ‘Mrs.’ Are purely for Social usage and application in a civilized society. A man and wife may not take an action with such titles as to suggest that they are one and the same person and not two people. It is a misnormer to lake action in that manner.”

JURISTIC PERSONALITY OF  ”MR. AND MRS. ADAMU OBI”

Having settled that ”Mr. and Mrs. Adamu Obi” is not a juristic personality, does it then mean that the contract for purchase of a property in the name of ”Mr. and Mrs. Adamu Obi” is invalid or unenforceable by reason of the fact that the name is not a juristic personality?

Let’s peep into our law reports to search for possible solution. Similar thing came up in the case of Okeke v. Unizik Teaching Hospital (2018) LPELR-43781(CA). What happened in this case was that “Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital”, instead of “Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital Management Board”, entered into a contract with Mr. Okeke. When Okeke sought to enforce the contract, Unizik argued that the contract was void and unenforceable because the Plaintiff was not a juristic personality. Though it was agreed that the Respondent was not a juristic personality, however, court held that the contract was enforceable. Court of Appeal held thus:

“It seems to me that the argument put up by the Respondent and accepted by the learned trial judge that the contract is void because the Respondent as named is not a legal entity smacks of an overt show of bad faith at best. The interpretation of the contract must be done in such a way that we are bound by equity to ignore a literal interpretation of the name of the Respondent without the phrase ‘Management Board’ and to assume that Teaching Hospital an aphorism of saying Teaching Hospital Management Board which had mobilised the Appellant to commence consultancy services, part paid contract sums and submitted itself to arbitration and even paid arbitration fees, cannot turn around to resile from the contract agreement and the arbitral proceedings it had submitted to and participated in.”

In Kwajaffa v. B.O.N Nig Ltd (2004) 5 SCNJ 121;(2004) LPELR-1727 (SC); (2004) NWLR Pt. 889 Pg. 141, the Appellant entered a mortgage agreement with the title deeds in his son’s name. The son was a minor. He sought to declare the agreement a nullity because his son was incapable of executing a contract as a minor. The Supreme Court held that a party cannot resile from his obligations under a contract from which he had benefited because he never followed what the law required. In the immortal words of Belgore JSC (as he then was) at page 143:

“Had this appeal succeeded it would have created consequences that will allow fraud to pay. The appellants’ case was ab initio based on the illusory nullity caused by their deceit. A Court of law must always be that justice and equity, self induced nullity will not help the appellants.”

Also, in Sosan v. HFP Engineering (Nig) Ltd (2004) 3 NWLR Pt. 861 Pg. 546, the Appellant after benefitting from a contract, sought to declare the contract void because the Governor’s consent was not obtained before the sub-lease agreement was executed by the parties.

Onalaja JCA went to town on how a Court of equity should deal with this type of situation. His Lordship stated unequivocally at page 573 as follows:

“Apart from the principle of law involved in this case, it is morally despicable for a person who has benefited from an agreement to turn round and say that the agreement is null and void. In pursuance of the principle that law should serve public interest, the Courts have evolved the technique of construction in bonampartem”.

In the light of the foregoing decided cases, it is my view that a contract bearing ”Mr. and Mrs. Adamu Obi” is enforceable irrespective of the fact the name is non juristic. However, it is desirable to write the names properly to avoid unnecessary rigors of litigation.

O. G. Chukkol is a final year student, Faculty of Law, ABU, Zaria and may be reached via 08032470318 or [email protected]

Thenigerialawyer

US prosecutors now believe supporters of President Donald Trump planned to “capture and assassinate elected officials” in their siege laid to the Capitol building last week, according to a new court filing.

The filing, submitted by Justice Department lawyers late Thursday, sought the detention of Jacob Chansley of Arizona, the QAnon conspiracy theorist pictured in the riot dressed as a horned shaman at the desk of Vice President Mike Pence.

“Strong evidence, including Chansley’s own words and actions at the Capitol, supports that the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the United States government,” prosecutors said of the January 6 siege.

They said Chansley, 33, left a note for Pence at the dais in the Senate Chamber where the second-in-command had been standing just minutes before, which read: “it’s only a matter of time, justice is coming.”

The filing, according to AFP, gives further insight into the FBI probe on the day of chaos at the center of American democracy, which left elected officials holed up fearing for their lives and at least five people dead, including one police officer.

It comes as authorities lay charges against individuals involved in the riot, including a man who flew the confederate flag inside the building, a man who wore a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt and a US Olympic swimming gold medalist.

Chansley is due to appear in court on Friday.

Prosecutors said he is a regular drug user and likely has mental health problems.

“Chansley has spoken openly about his belief that he is an alien, a higher being, and he is here on Earth to ascend to another reality,” the filing read.

Prosecutors requested he be detained as he “poses serious risks of flight and danger to the community.”

Chansley subscribes to QAnon, the far-right conspiracy theory blamed for fueling a section of Trump’s supporters at the Capitol building.

Social media platforms have started cracking down on its followers, who believe Trump is waging a secret war on a liberal cult of Satan-worshipping pedophiles.

In a bipartisan vote, Trump was impeached Wednesday for “incitement of insurrection” by egging on a huge crowd of his supporters to march on Congress.

The center of Washington was in lockdown early Friday as more than 20,000 armed National Guard troops were mobilized after officials warned of the threat of more violence at the presidential inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20, as well as in state capitals. (theconclaveng)

Condemnation has trailed the brutal killing in Jos, of a Cyto-genetics Professor, Gabriel Hembave Asenge on January 9.

Asenge, who retired as a Professor from the University of Jos was until his brutal murder at the age of 71, the Chairman of the Regional Bio Research Centre in Rayfield, Jos.

Family sources told DAILY ASSET that the deceased, who left his house about 6.00PM on the fateful day did not return by 8.00PM as he had earlier indicated to his family members.

The sources maintained that following a search all through the night, the Professors lifeless body was found in his car on a street in Rayfield, Jos.

The sources further disclosed that it was shocking to discover that the body was set ablaze in the car.

The family sources described the deceased as ” a decent, quiet, dignified person who seldom gets angry, agitated or conflicted with others”.https://galleria.com.ng/pushgalleriaads?q=201&i=59&ho=dailyasset.ng

The family said it was “distraught, confused and deeply grieved that he was abducted, killed and dumped in his car, which was then burnt.”

In the outrage that trailed the incident, the Benue state government is said to have appealed to the Plateau state Governor, Simon Lalong to ensure that perpetrators of the dastardly act were brought to justcie.

An official of the Benue state Government , who preferred anonymity said the Governor, Samuel Ortom was deeply touched by the sad news of Asenge’s demise and had reached out to his colleague to do everything within his reach to bring the assailants to the book.

The late Prof Asenge, a renowned Micro Biologist had taught at the University of Jos for several years and also worked briefly at the Bingham University as well as Baze University, Abuja before he finally retired to set up a private research centre in the field of Micro-Biology.

The Centre offers advanced research support to Post-Graduate students especially Doctoral candidates across the west African Sub-region.

The Police in Jos, the Plateau state capital were yet to make any formal statement on the incident at the time of this report. (dailyasset)

A civilian, Emmanuel Odaudu, has been languishing in the Nigerian Military Special Investigation Bureau underground cell in Abuja for seven months over an old Facebook video.

PUNCH Metro gathered that Emmanuel’s ordeal started when he was in the army.

He was said to have posted on social media short videos of himself rapping while in uniform.

The videos, some of which went viral, reportedly infuriated the military authorities, leading to his arrest and detention for three months.

Emmanuel’s mother, Helen, who spoke to PUNCH Metro on Wednesday, said her son was later released, but told he would be redeployed to Maiduguri over the matter.

However, while awaiting his redeployment, Helen said the Commanding Officer, 29 Battalion Nigerian Army, Bori Camp, Port Harcourt, dismissed her son over another video he made months before his detention.

She said, “My son told me he made a post on Facebook advising people to get their permanent voter cards to vote for good governance. He was also wearing his uniform in that video, but he deleted it almost immediately. Before he deleted it, a celebrity, Charly Boy, reposted it and the commanding officer told him he had been dismissed because of that video. After his dismissal on October 5, 2017, my son returned home.”

Helen said her son was busy with his life when the military tracked him to Otukpo, Benue State, on June 12, 2020, on the allegation that he impersonated the Army in another video seen on social media.

PUNCH Metro learnt that one of Emmanuel’s old videos while in the army was shared on Facebook.

The military was said to have ordered his arrest over it.

“What happened was that Facebook shared the memory of my son’s old video and the military authorities can verify that on his page. But because he was a civilian as of the time Facebook reposted the video, they said he was impersonating. They blindfolded him, chained both his hands and legs and took him away without disclosing their destination to us,” the mother added.

The 40-year-old said the family tracked Emmanuel to an underground cell in Port Harcourt.

She said he was later transferred to the SIB underground cell in Abuja, where he was allowed to call his family.

Helen said, “When I heard my son’s voice two months after he was arrested in Otukpo, I was happy because I thought they had killed him.

“My son has been in the underground cell for seven months now; he has been tortured like a criminal and refused trial. My son is no longer an officer; whatever the offence, why can’t they hand him over to the police for trial in a conventional court? I come from the barracks, the army don’t arrest and keep civilians in detention for more than 24 hours, why is my son’s case different?

“I am pleading with the military authorities to release my son.”

The Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sagir Musa, did not take his calls and had yet to respond to a WhatsApp message sent to his phone as of press time. (Punchng)

Emmanuel was arrested for tweeting that he would “pay a Russian sniper to eliminate Buhari and Kyari”,

Solomon Akuma, the father of Emmanuel Akuma, a pharmacist, who has reportedly been detained by the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) in Abuja for about nine months, has narrated to PREMIUM TIMES how the police ‘deceived’ him to get his son arrested.

The father, who is a senior pastor at the Truevine Evangelical Mission based in Delta State, said his son, a pharmacist intern with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), was arrested on April 2, 2020, in Aba, Abia State.

The 29 years old Emmanuel was arrested for tweeting that he would “pay a Russian sniper to eliminate Buhari and Kyari”, apparently referring to President Muhammadu Buhari and his then Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, who later died of complications attributable to COVID-19 later in the year.

The tweet was in response to a Twitter post asking respondents what their next move would be if they got $1 million.

The father said he thereafter received a call from a person ”who disguised to be a person seeking to reward him for praying for him in the past.”

“It was me they used as bait to get to my son. They used me as their link. Someone must have dug up my profile and they found out that I was a pastor,” he said.

The cleric added, “Someone called me that I had prayed for him at a place. He said he wanted to honour me and that he and others would be coming on a particular date.

“They also said that they would visit me and give me an honorarium. I said I was not really aware of what they were talking about.

“They said I should not bother that they knew me as a pastor. I said, okay, no problem. They said I had once ministered in their church.

“I was not around at the time because I went for burial in my hometown. So I lodged in my in-law’s place.

“I said no problem, but something ministered to me that those guys were not what they said they were and as it turned out to be, they were policemen.”

He said he reluctantly agreed to meet with them and took them to his in-law’s place, where they “arrested everybody and collected all our phones at gunpoint, and marched us into a red jeep they parked outside.”

He said the policemen later used his phone number to call his son “telling him that his father lost the phone”.

“In fact, because of all the weapons they had I couldn’t react because I could not ascertain who they were,” he said.

The cleric said when his son arrived at the scene, the men immediately arrested him.

“So, at that point, they gave us back our phones, and they took him to the police station, down to Umuahia, to Enugu and the next day, they went to Abuja,” he said.

Detained

He said he initially took them for kidnappers until after two days when his son called to inform him that he had been detained at the FCID at Area 10 in Abuja.

He said he had to defy the COVID-19 lockdown that was in place at the time to travel to Abuja the following day.ADVERTISEMENT

The pharmacist was reportedly detained at the FCID in Abuja forabout three months before they eventually charged him with terrorism, sedition, criminal intimidation, and threat to the life of the President and arraigned him at the Federal High Court in Abuja.

His father told PREMIUM TIMES that he had yet to come to terms with how his son, a 2018 graduate of Pharmacy from the University of Port Harcourt, could be accused of such offences.

He said it had been hard to cope with the absence of Emmanuel, his only son among three siblings, for nine months.

He said the trial was being delayed by the police, ”who continued to keep his son in custody since April 2020”.

He said his son had posted the tweet for which he was arrested out of frustration about the circumstances of his mother’s death in 2017.

He said, “I would say that it was his annoyance against the Federal Governments that made him write what he wrote, because the government had been owing the mother since her retrenchment from the federal service.

“She worked at the Nigeria Airways and the workers had been retired since 2002, and they didn’t pay them until my wife fell sick for four years.

“We spent everything in our hands until she died in 2017. So, it pained my son so much.”

PREMIUM TIMES’ efforts to contact the Force Public Relation Officer, Frank Mba, on Tuesday were unsuccessful as repeated calls to his telephone line failed to connect and a message sent to him was not replied. (premiumtimesng)

CATHOLIC Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, yesterday said Nigeria has not recovered from wounds of the civil war, 51 years after the unfortunate event.

He also lamented that the leaders have not learned instructive lessons from the 30-month war.

The activist-cleric, who spoke at the second edition of the “Never Again Conference” said the country has failed to adopt resolutions meant to heal the wounds of the war.

But, elder statesman Alhaji Tanko Yakassai disagreed with him, saying that the country had witnessed reconciliation and healing.

The Second Republic politician, who recalled that the largely Igbo coup of 1966 aborted the Nigerian dream and trajectory, observed that reconciliation, reconstruction and rehabilitation had taken place and Nigerians are living with one another all over the country.

He called on Nigerians to join hands to deepen democracy and enthrone an egalitarian society.

The theme of the virtual conference was: “51 years after the Nigerian-Biafran civil war.” It was chaired by Afenifere chieftain Chief Ayo Adebanjo.

The conference is the brainchild of Nzuko Umunna, a pan-Igbo socio-cultural organisation, which organised the first edition in Lagos last year.

Kukah said some of the neglected resolutions were re-echoed at the Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission set up by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and chaired by the late Justice Chikudifu Oputa.

He also said while the military laid the foundation for Nigerians to begin a process of rebuilding the nation, “things somehow went wrong” along the line.

Kukah stressed: “I have met a lot of people who fought the war who are full of regrets. There is a lot of resentment, anxiety and frustration that we have not learnt any lessons.

“Fifty-one years after the war, we are still hearing the kind of agitations that ordinarily, with commitment, dedication, focus and the right leadership, we should have put a lot of the anxieties behind us. Unfortunately, they are still with us.”

The bishop described the Oputa panel, which he was part of, as “the best school I would ever hope to attend”.

He added: “Oputa Panel managed to generate quite a lot of data and information that academicians and policymakers would have used to ensure we erect the signpost saying, ‘Never Again’, because it gave us an opportunity, a mirror to look at ourselves after hearing from all sides but we didn’t have the discipline to follow through.

“We have not been able to forgive ourselves as a people. The wounds of the civil war have not been able to heal.

“Coups and counter-coups that followed were more or less miniature civil wars by themselves because they threw up the same contradictions, anxieties and feeling of divisiveness across the country.”

The chairman of the conference planning committee, Prof. Pat Utomi, said the initiative started as an advocacy “in trying to bring a better understanding of the civil war and its aftermath to the Nigerian people”.

He said it was being pursued in a way that “it will become a source of energy for bringing a new nation”.

Utomi stressed: “We know that if people learn enough from errors of yesterday, they can, in fact, make more progress than they are currently making,” he said.

“One of the biggest challenges of nation-building is the kind of trust deficits that exist which make policy implementation very challenging.

“A better understanding of the civil war will make it become a ladder that people can climb to higher levels of growth.”

Adebanjo said with justice and equity, restructuring and a people’s constitution, Nigeria would overcome most of her current challenges.

He called for a return to the 1960 Independence Constitution or 1963 Constitution, which were products of agreement among the founding fathers, including Sir Ahmadu Bello, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

A First Republic Minister, Chief Mbazulike Amechi, who decried the marginalisation of Igbo in Nigeria, called for the enthronement of equity, fairness and justice.

‘Igbo President will prove war has truly ended’

A leader of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Prince Emeka Udodeme, said only when an Igbo person becomes the President will the world believe that the war has truly ended.

The new Ohanaeze president in Anambra State told our correspondent that Ndigbo desire equity and fairness

He said: “Ndigbo are not lacking anything except the presidency which other zones had occupied.

“What Ohanaeze Ndigbo is saying is: allow us to occupy the only position other sections of the country had occupied, which is the presidency, and we will not relent in that demand.

“We’ve fared well through our struggles but why are they still afraid to give Igbo what is due to us?”

For the National Vice-President of Ohanaeze (Southeast), Chief Damian Okeke-Ogene, some of those issues that led them to war were still there.

He said: “Yes, the war ended many years ago, but have those who fought against us during those years seen it that way?

“Ohanaeze is not giving up on the Igbo president come 2023. The present body will continue from where the Chief Nnia Nwodo stopped in making sure Ndigbo get to that elusive position

“We are working with our brothers and sisters from other ethnic groups. We are demanding equity, justice and fairness in Nigeria.”

Thenigerialawyer

•Your performance below average, insist PDP, Afenifere

In a self-assessment yesterday, President Muhammadu Buhari awarded his administration high marks, saying the country is better than he met it more than five years ago.

But the main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, faulted the president’s claim, contending that he has underperformed.

Buhari, in assessing his administration yesterday, gave himself a pass mark for a job well done, tasking the elite to be fair in their criticism of his stewardship.

Buhari, who spoke while hosting the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission, Reverend Yakubu Pam, painted a bad picture of the economy, infrastructure as well as the security situation in the North-east as at the time he became president on May 29, 2015.

The president, in a statement by his media adviser, Mr. Femi Adesina, charged Nigerians, especially the elite, to be fair in their criticism of his administration, given the state of the nation in 2015 and thereafter.

He said: “Those criticising the administration should be fair in terms of reflecting on where we were before we came, where we are now and what resources are available to us and what we have done with the limited resources.

“We had to struggle paying debts, investing in road repairs and rebuilding, to revamp the rail and try to get power. This is what I hope the elite, when they want to criticise, will use to compare notes.”

On security, especially in the North-east, the president said: “What was the situation when we came? Try and ask people from Borno or from Adamawa for that matter and Yobe. What was the condition before we came and what is the condition now?”

Buhari added that although there are still some security challenges in the North-east, the situation has improved.

“Still, there are problems in Borno and Yobe, there are occasional Boko Haram problems, but they know the difference because a lot of them moved out of their states and moved to Kaduna, Kano and here (in Abuja). We were not spared of the attacks at a time. The government is doing its best and I hope that eventually, our best will be good enough,” he stated.

The president also expressed the determination of his administration to ensure a better life for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

“The people in IDP camps, the weak, the aged; I feel sorry for the young because this is the time they are supposed to get an education. We must not allow this time to pass because it will never be regained. So we are really interested in what is happening there and we are doing our best.”

He commended Pam on his appointment and activities on peacebuilding around the country despite his short time in the saddle.

Earlier, Pam had intimated the president with some of the activities of the commission since he was appointed in July 2020.

These, he said, include the organisation of a peace summit on Southern Kaduna as well as peacebuilding efforts in Plateau, Benue, Taraba and Nasarawa States, adding that the commission is proposing to host Christian leaders at a summit to ease tension in the polity.

PDP, Afenifere Reject President’s Claim

Buhari’s self-appraisal, however, attracted criticism from Afenifere and PDP.

But the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) declined to comment on his claim when contacted by THISDAY.

Spokesman of Afenifere, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, told THISDAY that Nigeria in the last five-and-a-half years of the Buhari administration is much better from a backward perspective.

He said: “Honestly, herders who are grazing cows on the expressway in Abuja must have seen some changes and, therefore, are not living in the same country with us. It is a clash of civilisation we cannot overcome in any way.”

The main opposition party, the PDP, faulted the president for resorting to what it described as “desperate face-saving media stunts in his incongruous plea to Nigerians to accept that the situation in Nigeria is better under his watch, despite the contrary harsh reality in the country.”

The party said Buhari’s illusory self-assessment further validated its position that he has since abandoned governance for the luxury and pleasures of the Presidential Villa, having lost touch with how the country has fared under him.

The PDP stated that every fair criticism of the Buhari administration reveals failures and a reversal of fortunes for the country.

“It is unfortunate that at a time Nigerians expected the president to be remorseful for his failures and rally compatriots for a solution, he is rather seeking an endorsement of his cluelessness,” the party said.

“How does President Buhari sleep in the night, in the comfort of Aso Villa, knowing that because of his failures, millions of Nigerians go to bed on empty stomach; that since he took over, more than 30 million businesses have crumbled; that over 60 million Nigerians have lost their means of livelihoods resulting in excruciating hardship in our country in the last five years?”

The party said it is unfortunate that Buhari wants Nigerians to overlook the fact that he wrecked a robust economy handed over to him in 2015 with Fitch B+ rating as one of the fastest-growing economy in the world.

It accused the Buhari administration of turning Nigeria into the world’s poverty capital and a beggar nation that is now borrowing from all parts of the world.

It stated: “Is President Buhari trivialising the pain of a nation, which his administration plunged into the worst type of economic recession; where families can no longer afford their daily meals and other necessities of life; and where life has become so unbearable that compatriots now resort to suicide and slavery mission abroad as options?”

The party added that when Buhari took over in 2015, one dollar was N160 whereas it is about N500 now. (thepodium)